lOO 
allen’s naturalist’s librarv. 
taken our seats again to start off, when, as I stooped down to 
disengage the hind leg of one of my deer, lo and behold, there 
was a nest under my sleigh. The whole train of sleighs had 
passed over this nest, and yet the single egg was not broken. 
On August 7 we picked up a young Skua and brought it back 
^ almost full-grown, and had well-developed 
primaries. Its parents showed no anxiety about it. It was 
beside a lake, and as we approached, ran and hid in some 
grasses. It bit viciously, but made no noise.” 
“ I_ never in any single instance knew an Arctic Skua to stoop 
at a visitor near its nest. On the contrary, an intrusion was met 
by every wile of allurement. It was the old game of ‘ hot or 
cold ; ’ until at last, when you stood close to the nest, both the 
birds were reduced to a state of helplessness. At such a time 
they behaved exactly alike. Sitting on their tails, either in the 
water or on the grass, and beating forwards with their wings, 
they mewed all the time like cats.” 
I have taken tlie following notes from Mr. E. W. Nelson’s 
Report on Collections from Alaska”: — -“During summer 
these Jaegers show a much greater preference for marshes and 
the low barren grounds so common in the north than they do 
for the vicinity of the sea-coast. At the Yukon mouth and 
near Saint Michael’s they arrive with the first open water, from 
the loth to the 15th of May. The snow still lies in heavy 
drifts on mo.st of the open country, but the Jaegers take pos- 
session and feed upon the Shrew-mice and Lemmings which 
are common on this ground. By the last of May they are 
very common, and twenty or thirty may be seen in a day’s 
hunt. 
1 he young are on the wing by the end of July and early 
August. Lhe last birds move southward, or keep out to sea, 
aftei the 20th of September. On cloudy day.s, or in the dusky 
twilight, these birds have a habit of uttering loud wailing cries, 
interspersed with harsh shrieks, which are among the most 
peculiar notes heard in the northern breeding-grounds. At all 
times the Jaegers are given to wandering, and one is likely to 
find them almost anywhere along the coast. They are not 
infrequently seen harrying Terns or Gulls to make them disgorge 
fish just caught. If successful, _ they dart down, and rising 
under the falling morsel catch it in their capacious mouth. 
