ARCTIC SKUA. 
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brown, paler on the belly and vent ; the centre of 
the feathers clove-brown ; mantle and lower back 
and wings clove-brown, feathers edged with yel- 
lowish brown ; quills and tail blackish brown, the 
former tipped with yellowish white; centre tail- 
feathers exceed the others by half an inch. 
Arctic Skua, Lestris Parasiticus. — The True 
Arctic Skua has been confounded with the pre- 
ceding, but it is a much more rare species, and 
is at once distinguished by its smaller size, more 
graceful proportions, and by the very elongated 
centre-feathers of the tail. Three specimens only 
of this Skua have been obtained on the north- 
eastern coast of England. The Zoological Society 
are said to have received it from Orkney, and we 
possess a single specimen from the same islands. 
We are not sure, however, that it breeds even in 
the more northern parts of our limits, for most of 
the older notices of the Arctic Gulls are roferrible 
to the preceding bird. It has been obtained on the 
French coasts, but is also apparently rare there. Its 
true station appears much farther northward, and 
we have received, at different times, specimens by 
the northern trading vessels, chiefly the whalers. 
Mr. Audubon states that it ranges along the southern 
coasts as far as the Mexican Gulf and the shores 
of the Floridas, “ but I never met with a single 
individual in summer, even in the most northern 
parts.” 
