SKUA
35. Megalestris skua. 22 inches.
These large birds are the most powerful and audacious pirates among the sea fowl of northern waters. Their whole form is indicative of strength; form robust, feet strong, and bill large, powerful and hooked. Their plumage is of a nearly uniform blackish-brown, with white shafts to the wing feathers and a white patch at the base of the primaries.
Nest.—They do not nest in large colonies, only a single or a few pairs breeding in the same locality. Their nests are hollows in the ground, a short distance back from the rocky shores. The two eggs that they lay are olive brown, spotted with blackish (2.75 × 1.90).
Range.—North Atlantic coasts, chiefly on the Old World side, breeding from the Shetland Islands and possibly Greenland, northwards. They are only rarely found on our coasts even in winter, but have been taken as far south as New York.
POMARINE JAEGER
36. Stercorarius pomarinus. 21 inches.
Jaegers are more slender in form than the Skuas, but like them are piratical in their habits, preying chiefly upon terns. Off Chatham, Mass., I have often watched them in pursuit of the graceful terns, but, excellent fliers as the latter birds are, they were always overtaken and forced to drop the fish that they carried, and the jaeger would rarely miss catching it as it fell. This species has two color phases independent of sex or age. In the light plumage the top of the head is black; rest of the upper parts and the under tail coverts brownish black; underparts and bases of primaries, white. Dark phase,—Entirely blackish brown except the white shafts to wing feathers and bases Of primaries. In any plumage they can be distinguished from the other species by the rounded, lengthened central tail feathers.
Nest.—A hollow in the ground in marshy places. The two eggs are olive brown spotted with black.