48 
Order — Longipetmes. Long- winged Swimmers 
General Description. The Long-winged Swimmers are sea birds, with four toes and 
two webs, and with the closed wings projecting beyond the tail, if the excessively length- 
ened middle tail feather of some Jaegers and the equally elongated^outer swallow-tails of 
some Terns are disregarded. 
Distinctions. Can be recognized as an Order by their long wings and bill characters 
(Figures 89 to 102), and are separated from the Tube-nosed Swimmers by the position 
of the nostrils which are in the sides of the bill and not in a tube on top (See Figures 103 
to 107, pages 66 to 69, for comparison). 
Field Marks. No field marks can be given covering the order except length of wing 
and mode of flight. 
Nesting. Usually breed on the ground or on cliff ledges, but there is little uniformity 
in their nesting habits. 
Distribution. Some species are more or less common over all the waterways of 
Canada. 
The Long-winged Swimmers are wonderful fliers, being both tireless 
and agile on the wing. In habit they are fishers, scavengers, or pirates. 
There are only two families of the order in Canada; the Jaegers Stercora- 
riidae and the Gulls Laridae, the latter including the closely allied Terns 
or “Sea Swallows.” 
All birds of this Order are protected by the Migratory Birds Convention 
Act and none of them may be killed legally in any part of the United 
States or Canada without special permission. 
Economic Status. Being sea birds, the damage they do is slight and 
some of them are actively beneficial to man. 
FAMILY— STERCORARIIDAE. SKUAS AND JAEGERS 
General Description. The Skuas and Jaegers are predaceous sea birds and as such 
have strongly hooked bills. The feet, webbed like Gulls, are armed with small but sharp, 
strongly curved, raptorial claws. The Skuas occur 
only in a single dark coloration, but the Jaegers 
(except perhaps the Long-tailed) are dichromatic and 
show two distinct colour phases with various though 
less common intermediate stages between. The dark 
E hase is almost evenly dark brown like the Skua, 
ut usually faintly lightening on the face and showing 
a suggestion of dark cap. The light phase has white 
or light underparts, often more or less crossbarred 
with dark, especially on flanks, throat, and cheeks 
(Figure 89), the latter as a rule with a golden tinge, 
and showing a distinct black cap. Young birds are 
usually in the dark phase and more or less completely 
barred with dark, or feather-edged with light. The species of this family are so similar 
to each other in coloration that the above is descriptive of all of them and they are 
almost inseparable by colour characters. 
Distinctions. The bills are diagnostic (Figure 89), there being a distinct nail at the 
tip forming a well-marked hook, plainly separable from the softer cere that occupies most 
of the upper mandible. This characteristic easily distinguishes them from the Gulls, 
whereas the presence of nostril openings at base of the hook and two instead of three webs 
distinguishes them from the Cormorants which have bills similar in general outline ( See 
Figure 108, page 71). That the nostrils are not in tubes and are at the forward end of the 
cere instead of at the base of it, differentiates them from the Shearwaters (Figure 106, 
page 68) and Petrels that also have hooked bills. 
Field Marks. Jaegers and Skuas are sooty dark above and light or white below. 
In some all the body is evenly sooty in colour. Except the Long-tailed Jaeger all have 
a conspicuous light band (Figure 90) on the under-wing surface across the base of the 
primaries. They are very hawk-like in flight. Skuas are too rare with us ever to be 
recorded on sight evidence. The long central tail feathers (Figures 91-93) of the adult 
Figure 89 
Jaeger, light phase; scale, J. 
