92 
aLI.EN’s NATURAI.ISr’s LIBRARY. 
Stick, the bird rises also, the whirr and vibration of its iiinions 
being distinctly heard and felt. Its ordinary flight is soaring 
and stately. On leaving the territory of one pair, the attack 
IS taken up by another, and so on, for the Great Skuas do 
not nest in close proximity. In fearlessness this fine bird is 
unriv.alled ; it has been seen to beat off the Sea-Eagle, and no 
Raven stands a chance against it. For this reason the pro- 
prietors of the land protect it ; Colonel Feilden says that in the 
Faeroes they also do so on account of the estimation in which 
the young are held for food ; but the fishermen shoot the old 
birds for the sake of the bill (for the neb-toll), feathers, and 
flesh, the latter making excellent fishing-bait. The stomachs 
of a pair which were shot were full of the flesh of the Kittiwake 
and^the castings consisted of the bones and feathers of that 
small Gull. Fleysham has noticed an adult female on the 
coast of Cumberland, which allowed herself to be seized while 
she was in the act of killing a Flerring Gull. It also feeds on 
fish offal, and I found by the side of a nestling some dis- 
gorged but otherwise uninjured herrings of large size.” 
I he late Dr. .Saxby has given the following note on the 
species in his “Birds of Shetland The Great Skuas are 
usually seen singly or in pairs, except during the early summer 
when they are assembled at the lireeding-grounds ; upon these 
occasions I have seen considerable numbers about the same 
spot, but even then they were chiefly in pairs, except when 
they became mixed up by accident. At such times, when the 
young arc about, the birds become very daring, sometimes even 
knocking a maifls hat from his head. A dog has no chance 
with them, for they buffet him so severely in their rapid swoops 
that he soon has to retire discomfited. I once had four of 
them sailing m circles close round ray head as I stood upon 
the crown of the highest hill in Unst, .Saxaford, and could 
almost touch them with my gun, the sound of Avhich, by the 
way, did not seem to cause them mucli alarm ; perhaps they 
divined how little they had to fear so far as I was concerned. 
1 he female is rather lighter in colour than the male, and is 
by far the bolder of the two. During the breeding-season the 
Skua will come to such close cjuarters with an intruder that I 
have known a man strike at one with a tether, and entangle 
it and bring it to the ground.” ° 
