104 Dr Fleming on the Arctic and Skua Gidls. 
perfect to warrant us to refer to it with confidence as synony- 
mous. 
This species breeds in unfrequented heaths in the Hebrides 
and Northern Islands. Its nest is constructed of dry grass. 
The eggs are in general two in number, about two inches in 
length, of a dirty olive-green colour, with irregular blotches of 
liver-brown, most numerous at the thick end. The. eggs of this- 
species, however, like those of many kinds of water-fowl, exhi- 
bit considerable differences as to colour. In defending its nest 
when containing young birds, it is remarkably bold and impe- 
tuous ; and, in its motions, bears a considerable resemblance to 
the lapwing It often feigns lameness, in order to decoy unwel- 
come visitors to a distance. 
In the breeding season, it may be regarded, like tlie gulls, as 
gregarious. It appears at the breeding places about the begin- 
ning of May, and retires in the end of August. During the re- 
mainder of the year, it is dispersed over the ocean. 
It is a species widely distributed in nature. It has been 
found from the twenty-eighth degree of north latitude to the 
icy shores of Spitzbergen, 
The flight of this bird is rapid, and its sight acute. It per- 
ceives the success of the common gulls, even at a considerable? 
distance, pursues them with success, and picks up the morsel 
which they have been compelled to vomit, in general before it 
reaches the water. It is in this predator}^ manner that it seems 
to obtain the greatest part of its food i not exclusively, how- 
ever, since we are informed by G bister, in the Memoirs of the 
Academy of Stockholm, vol. ix. p. 51. that it will, eveii in the 
strongest breeze, seize any small fish which the sailors throw in 
the air ; that it even steals away herring from the decks of the- 
fishing vessels ; and, if they are salted, washes them previous to 
swallowing them ; that it is the sign of the presence ol fish ; 
and, when these are scarce at sea, it approaches the banks, to 
feed on the earnings of the weaker gulls. 
* During our six days confinement by a storm, on the dreary and remote rock 
of Foulah, we had frequent opportunities of observing the Arctic Skua. This bird 
we found fully -as troublesome as the common skua ; for the moment we approach., 
ed near to its nest, it beat us upon the head and in the face with its wings, and 
continued to pursue us until we quitted its domain.— E b. 
