SELBORNIA NA . 
57 
after feeding the young, which on examination proved to be faeces removed to 
keep the nest sweet. If they really swallow the faeces, they have the power of 
ejecting them. Starlings also keep their nests sweet by removing the feces in the 
same way. J. A. Kerr. 
The Rectory , Clyst St. Mary , Exeter. 
Swifts and Sparrows.— Mr. Gordon’s record of the swifts taking the 
sparrow’s nest and killing the occupants is very interesting, and I am very glad to 
learn that they can on occasion take such a decided course. I only wish that 
here they would take the law into their own hands, or rather claws, in the same 
way. In this church several nests, in which they used to lay years ago, were for 
several seasons tenanted by the sparrows, who were left unmolested by the swifts, 
though the latter seem to have wanted the room, as they returned directly I had 
induced the sparrows to stay away. Mr. Gordon’s swifts were not church birds, 
and perhaps that is why they were unscrupulous. 
The Vicarage , Orleton. Aubrey Edwards. 
Threatened Extermination of the Great Skua Gull.— Miss Isobel 
Waterston and others write to us on the subject, 'urging that action should be 
taken to prevent the extinction of this rare bird. Mr. Harold Raeburn writes, 
in that excellent publication, The Scottish Naturalist , which we strongly recom- 
mend to all our northern readers — “ This year — 1890 — the persecution which the 
great skua has been subjected to has been worse than any previous year ; and an 
•extremely unpleasant feature — a new one— is the fact that men calling themselves 
naturalists — I am glad to say there are no Scotsmen among them — have visited 
the Shetlands, and, not contented with taking the eggs, have shot the old birds 
as well, in utter contempt of the provisions of the Wild Birds’ Protection 
Act. 1 do not alone refer to the proceedings of Mr. Barrington and his party (e.g., 
Zoologist , September, October, November, 1890), for I have the names of several 
others who also destroyed great skuas on their breeding-grounds this year. If 
this sort of thing is going to be repeated, then, I think, it will be the duty of 
Scottish naturalists to take the matter up and put a stop to it by prosecuting the 
offenders ; a conviction would be easily obtained at the Lerwick Court.” 
Mr. H. Knight Ilorsfield writes as follows to The Field : — “At the present 
time there are only three stations in the United Kingdom where the great skua 
gull ( Lestris catarrhactes ) breeds, namely, Foula, Unst and Northmavin — all in 
Shetland. Although always a rare bird, the pairs breeding in Foula have in- 
creased materially during the last two or three decades, owing to the fostering 
care of the late Ur. Scott, of Melby, to whom the island belonged. But the 
modern collector with his gun has now penetrated even to this remote spot — 
.a spot, indeed, so inaccessible that a sailor on the mainland, barely twenty miles 
distant, told the writer that he once dispatched a message to China and to Foula 
on the same date, and received a reply from China first. Unless some power in- 
tervenes, the great skua — -at any rate, as a British species — will soon, like the 
dodo and the great auk, belong to the fauna of the past. Fortunately, the 
remedy is in the hands of naturalists themselves. Mr. Harold Raeburn, writing 
to a contemporary, states that he has the names of several visitors who, during 
the breeding season of 1890, not content with taking the eggs, shot the old birds, 
in utter disregard of The Wild Birds’ Protection Act, and adds that, if the neces- 
sary steps were taken, a conviction in the Lerwick Court could easily be obtained. 
It is to be hoped that Mr. Raeburn and other Scottish ornithologists will form a 
vigilance committee for the season of 1891. Despite its predatory nature, the 
honxie, as the Shetlanders call the great skua, has many valuable qualities. The 
natives of P'oula protect it to a great extent, because it relentlessly attacks and 
drives away the corbies (ravens), which prey upon the lambs. But, unluckily, 
the eggs have a value in the eyes of collectors, and find a ready market in Ler- 
wick and elsewhere ; and when the peasant, wandering over the higher reaches 
of those lonely hills, finds a hollow fashioned in the heather or moss, who can 
wonder if its olive-mottled contents occasionally disappear ? And if, in addition 
to this, the British collector is annually to visit the cliffs of Foula in the same 
selfish spirit which he displays at Flamborough and Speeton in the month of 
August, the days of Lestris catarrhactes in Shetland will be numbered.” 
