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454 Messrs. H. Seebohm and J. A. Harvie Brown on 
Richardson’s Skua we obtained was shot at Stanavoialachta ; 
and we afterwards found it at Bougrai*, on the tundra opposite 
Alexievka, and at Dvoinik, on the occasion of our first visit 
to that place. The eggs were taken at three localities :— 
Bougrai; opposite Alexievka, by Simeon, who also shot the 
bird; and at Stanavoialachta. At the latter place, when com- 
ing home after a long ramble over the tundra, a pair, on a 
level part of the tundra, attracted Harvie-Brown’s notice by 
their curious antics, which told of the nest being close at 
hand. The birds often alighted within fifteen yards, raised 
their wings above the back (when they did this the white or 
dusky quills showed light upon the raised wing), shammed 
lameness and sickness, and stood reeling from side to side as 
if mortally wounded. If followed, they tried to lead him away ; 
but if he again approached the vicinity of the nest, they flew 
boldly towards him and stooped repeatedly. The nest con- 
tained two eggs, and was placed on a tussock on mossy ground, 
somewhat similar to the Grey-Plover ground before described. 
It contained reindeer-moss in small quantities, and leaves of 
the surrounding plants. We found another nest at Bougrai, 
watching the bird to the nest, and both walking almost straight 
up to it from different directions. Amongst all the specimens 
of this bird seen or obtained, there were none of the parti- 
coloured birds found commonly in this country. 
STERCORARIUS PARASITICUS (L.), Saund. P. Z. S. 1876, 
p. 330. 
The Buffon’s Skua was first identified by Seebohm on an 
island near Alexievka, and was afterwards met with abun- 
dantly on the tundra, especially at Bougrai, where a flock 
of some hundreds had assembled, from which we shot about 
a dozen examples. They behaved in exactly the same way 
as a colony of Terns. When one was shot the rest of 
the flock swooped down or hovered over it. We shot some 
of them with dust-shot. After a time the flock would depart 
for a quarter of an hour and settle widely apart all over the 
tundra ; but they came back repeatedly ; and had we been sup- 
* Lit. old jut. 


