the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 455: 
plied with cartridges we might have secured many more. 
About a dozen or fifteen Gulls (Larus affinis, Reinhardt) were 
frequenting the same ground; but these at once took their 
departure and did not return. On several occasions we ob- 
served the peculiar Kestrel- or Tern-like hover of the Buffon’s 
Skua on wing, and also saw these birds pick up from the 
ground, or seize upon the wing, Dunlins and Stints, in the 
one case acting like a Hen-Harrier, in the other seizing their 
prey like a Falcon. We had cause also to suspect their 
depredations amongst the eggs; and Grey Plovers and other 
birds often joined in driving them away from their domains. 
Sometimes, in the evenings or mornings, we saw long strag- 
gling flocks of these Skuas passing over the island of Alex- 
ievka, and crossing and recrossing the branch of the Petchora 
which separates that island from the fastland. We found 
them common all over the tundra as far north-east as we 
penetrated. 
In the specimens of the two species which we obtained we 
found a marked difference in the coloration of the legs and 
toes, those of the Richardson’s Skua being uniform dark 
brown, while those of Buffon’s Skua were blotched with bluish 
grey. In one specimen of the latter there is a single feather 
of the under tail-coverts white, with dark brown bars ; in all 
the other specimens procured the under tail-coverts are of a 
uniform smoky brown. This single feather is doubtless a 
last trace of immaturity. 
Obs. We saw many specimens of the Pomatorhine Skua 
outside the Golaievskai banks on our journey home by sea, 
but saw nothing of this species during our stay m Russia. 
CoLYMBUS SEPTENTRIONALIS, L. 
We added this species to our list on the 12th June as we 
were descending the river, when one was shot from the boat. 
Afterwards we met with it sparingly on the tundra and ob- 
tained their eggs; but the next species appeared to be certainly 
the more abundant of the two. 
CotymeBus arcticus, L. 
We identified the Black-throated diver first at Habariki, on 
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