Stercorarius .parasiticus (Linnseus *);
THE LONG-TAILED OR BUFE'Ol^ SKUA.
' Lestris Buffonii. !
This smallest species />fv thegenus iStev'corariu‘8f%although
much more rare than the Arctic Skua, has,occasionally'been
taken in this country, .generally in autumn. It is distinctly
circumpolar,in its breeding-range, and:although;it has been
said to nest sporadically in Caithness and the Orkneys,
the evidence can hardly be considered'conclusive. Mr. R.
Gray states that in the summer of* 1863 he examined a pair
shekon the island of Wiay in the Hebrides, as they hovered
©ven a marsh where there were.nests of the Arctic-Skua,
* Lwru* parasiticus, Linnaeus, Syst! Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. I226* (lfidf!? The
Editor believes that he has shown (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 327) that the description
given by Linnaeus can only apply to this species, although AhljjJme was subsequently
transferred, most unfortunately and improperly; to the Arctic Skua.
LONG-TA1LED : SKUA. 681
and he considers it probable that they were breeding there;
In the autumn stragglers occur on the coasts and islands of
Scotland, but not: in any numbers. On thé east side l óf
England it appears at irregular intervals, especially between
the mouth of thé Tees and Flamborough.Head; and during
the storms of the autumn of 1879, already noticed, a eont
siderable, number -wérö obtained, some of. them .adults.
Southwards its visits become rarer, and Mr.‘Cecil Smith can
only*-cite two.instances, in Somersetshire; Mr.* Gatcombe
récords an adult obtained: at Plymouth- some years ago*;
and the late .Mr. Rodd’was only aware of two examples.being
met with in Cornwall, during his, long experience, uhtil-:1877$
when: an adult bird, shot near the Lizard, was sent .to Mr.'
¥ingoer for. preservation, on the 4th of June—an unusually
late date :(^ool. 1877, p. 300).. The western side of England
appears to hé . séldom-.visited a in Lancashire, .as Mr. F„ Ss
Mitchell ‘ informsg the Editor, three were shot .on' Graiige
sands the day the ‘Royal Charter’ waa.lètój and one at
Ribble in March 18.77», Occasionally it has been shot in
several “inland counties.
In Ireland both adults' and immature specimens have
been .obtained ©iL-the. autumn, and more rarely Jon the spring
migrations, in the counties of Donegal, Antrim, Dublin,.
Waterford, and Mayo j in the latter a nearly adult example
was shot on a grouse-mountain as it-rose from the carease of a
dead horse on which it had been feeding ('ZooliilW7,p. 331).
The Long-tailed Skua is only a visitor to the Faeroes,
wheré it was unusually numerous in the autumn of 18731
and it lias not'been-proved to breed in Iceland, although
killed there as late as the 10th of June. A fe# pahs nest
on the Dovrefj-eld, in '62^° N. lat., and Wolleyy Wheelwright
and others found it breeding in considerable numbers far inland
on the fells of Swedish-Lapland. It has .beentjahléf
at ’Spitsbergen, and, on histboat voyage, Parry remarked- it
up to 82° Ni lat. j Capt. A. H. Markham, R.N., found it brêed-
, * Mr. Gatcombe infocips the Èditor that Mr. Gould’s statem^tj purporting Jo
be gxvfen on his authority‘■(B, Gt; Brrt.^,f, as to the frequent occurrence of
immature birds near Plymouth in autumn, must refer to the;preceding speciejk
VOL. III. 4 s