eggs with dark-brown spots. When men
approach her nest, the mother will try to decoy
them away from her eggs or young by pretending
to be lame, and tumbling about as if her
wing were broken. The eggs are four lines more
than two inches long, and eight lines more than
one inch broad. Even when newly hatched and
only covered with down, the young have the
characteristic blue legs and black toes of the
species. They become of a beautiful brown
colour, barred and spotted with black, ere the
down has left their heads, which disappears
gradually, leaving only a few brown marks
discernible, when the tail-feathers begin to lengthen.
After the second year the plumage becomes
permanently of a greyish umber-brown, the neck,
as age comes on, becoming white streaked with
yellow. Specimens of Richardson's skua are
somewhat numerous along the Firths of Forth,
Tay, Cromarty, and Beauly.

Living by piracy, these skuas might be
expected to breed near the sea; but a few miles
are of no consequence to birds with such powers
of rapid flight. Their breeding colonies are
found some miles inland. They appear in the
Orkneys regularly in May, and leave in August.
" The female," says Mr. Dunn, " has recourse to
the stratagem of the plover to lure intruders from
the nest; but when stratagem fails, she waxes
bold and fierce in defence of her eggs or her
young. She strikes severely with feet and bill."
On his first visit to a skua colony, he had a dog
with him which had been so completely cowed
by the blows of the skuas, that the moment he
heard the well-remembered cry of one of them,
he came crouching and skulking behind his
master for protection, and could not be induced
to hunt again until he was some distance from
the colony. On the occasion of his second
visit, Mr. Dunn had with him a dog of more
courage and resource. After recovering his
astonishment at the assault of the skua, this dog
would watch the moment when the skua was
about to pounce upon him, and by springing
up to meet the attack escaped many severe
blows.

Bold and familiar, with a swift, elegant,
gliding flight, this skua calls to mind the
kestril, which it much resembles in its habits,
Mr. Macgillivray has described the hunting of
this sea-hawk, which he calls the pirate, as it
may be seen upon the southern shore of the
Firth of Forth in the end of the month of
August. It is the season when flocks of gulls,
sea-mews, and terns, are fishing the shoals of
sand-eels and the fry of the coal-fish, which are
sporting in the waters. With the freshness of
a painter from nature, Macgillivray sketches
the wavelets chasing each other, the sunbeams
glittering upon them, and the gentle breezes
tempering the heat of noontide. Sea-birds are
hovering and wheeling about, with their screams
blending into one harsh, but, for a time, pleasing
noise. Every now and then a tern dips into
Ihe water, emerging with a fish in its bill, which
it swallows without alighting. In the midst of
all this bustle and merriment there comes
gliding from afar, with swift and steady motion,
a dark and resolute-looking bird, which, as it
cleaves a passage for itself among the terns,
seems a messenger of death. But a few
minutes ago he was miles away, and but a dim
speck on the horizon; and now he is pursuing
a victim. The light and agile tern mounts,
descends, sweeps aside, glides off in a curve,
turns, doubles, and shoots away, screaming
incessantly the while. The skua with ease
follows every movement. At length the tern, in
fright, disgorges part of the contents of its
gullet, and then the pursuer catches the falling
fish, and flies off to attack another bird. He
harasses the tern, the brown-hooded mew, and
the kittiwake, but Mr. Macgillivray affirms the
black-backed, yellow-footed, and herring gulls
are not his tributaries. The skua never fishes
himself, but hunts in this way until his appetite
is satisfied. His wings are considerably curved,
like those of the gulls and terns, his flight
resembling that of the tern or sea-swallow, only
being steadier and without undulations. When
not hunting this skua flies about at some height
in short curves. The skua can sit lightly upon
the water, like the gull.

Unlike the others, the Pomarine skua is not
known to breed in the British islands. The
length of this species is about nineteen or
twenty inches, and the spread of the wings no
less than forty-five inches; and the tail is only
six inches long. The inner webs and shafts of
the middle tail-feathers to near the end are
white underneath. During the autumn of 1862
many specimens of this skua were found on the
coasts of the British islands, from Stromness, in
the Orkneys, in the north, to Dublin Bay in the
west, and Fresh water, in the Isle of Wight, in
the south. The middle tail-feathers are only
two inches longer than the others. The
plumage is black brown. A variety of this
species, with black and white bars across the
breast, has been called Lestris striatus. The
colour of the eggs of the Pomarine skua is
green.

The common skua breeds in the British
islands only in Shetland, it is believed, and
there only on three of the highest
mountains: the Snuke, Ronas, and Saxaflord. The
length of this species is about two feet, and
the spread of the wings is fifty-five inches,
the tail being rather more than seven inches
long.

The savans are not agreed respecting the
habits of this species. Mr. Yarrel says, like the
other skuas, it makes the gulls disgorge; but
he does not cite the testimony of any observer
for his statement. Dr. Edmonston, on the
contrary, who enjoyed excellent opportunities of
watching the habits of the common skua, asserts
that although occasionally attacking small birds,
this species does not make other birds cater for
it. Of all the group, this skua is the most daring
in defending its young. As the Rev. Mr. Low
approached the summits of the high mountains,
he came near the skuas' quarters on the peaks.
His dog was soon obliged to run in among the