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POMARINE SKUA. 
— Pomarine Gull, Skua or Jager of British authors . 
— Next in size and strength is the Pomarine Skua, 
a winter visitant only to the British isles, and not 
known to breed within their range. Mr Yarrell 
has given many instances of specimens being ob- 
tained on the English coasts, showing it to be by no 
means a very rare species. We have observed it 
at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and have ob- 
tained several specimens as high up as Newhaven. 
Its flight is very swift and rapid, and when present 
in the Firth it may almost always be seen making 
its attacks on the lesser gulls. Its proper range ap- 
pears to bo Northern Europe and the Arctic Seas, 
but the northern travellers did not often find it 
breeding ; in one voyage the eggs were found on 
the margin of a small lake.* Audubon met with it 
near the harbour of Little Macatina, on the Labra- 
dor coast, where it pursued tho kittiwakes and 
ring-billed gulls, and when these birds could not 
supply them, picked up the fishes that had been 
thrown on shore. 
Tho legs of this species are sometimes pied black 
and yellow. 
Capt. James C. Ross. 
