ORDER LONGIPENNES. LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS.

FAMILY STERCORARIIDE. SKUAS AND JAEGERS.

GENUS STERCORARIUS BRISSON.

STERCORARIUS POMARINUS (TEMM.).

12. Pomarine Jaeger. (36)

Middle tail feathers finally projecting about four inches, broad to the tip. Length, about 20 inches; wing, 14; bill, 1-12; tarsus, about 2. Adult:Back, wings, tail, crissum and lower belly, brownish-black; below from bill to belly, and neck all round, pure white, excepting acuminate feathers of sides of neck, which are pale yellow; quills, whitish basally, their shafts largely white; tarsi-above, blue; below, with the toes and webs, black. Not quite adult:-As before, but breast with dark spots, sides of the body with dark bars, blackish of lower belly interrupted; feet, black. Younger:-Whole under parts, with upper wings and tail coverts, variously marked with white and dark; feet, blotched with yellow. Young:-Whole plumage transversely barred with dark brown and rufous; feet, mostly yellow. Dusky stage (coming next after the barred plumage just given?); fuliginous, unicolor; blackish-brown all over, quite black on the head, rather sooty-brown on the belly; sides of the neck slightly shaded with yellow.

HAB.-Seas and inland waters of northern portion of the northern hemisphere; chiefly maritime. South in North America to the Great Lakes and New Jersey.

Nest composed of grass and moss placed on an elevated spot in a marsh.
Eggs, two or three, grayish-olive, with brown spots.

The Pomarine Skua is occasionally seen in company with the large gulls, which spend a short time during the fall around the west end of Lake Ontario, following the fishing boats and picking up the loose fish that are shaken out of the nets. It is spoken of by the fishermen as a bird of a most overbearing, tyrannical disposition, one which they would gladly punish, but on these trying trips all hands are occupied with matters of too much importance to think of shooting gulls.

The home of this species is in the far north. Mr. Nelson says, in the "Birds of Alaska": "They are abundant in spring off the mouth of the Yukon. Along both shores of the Arctic to the north they are very numerous, and to a great extent replace the other two species.

"They are especially common along the border of the ice-pack and about the whaling fleet, where they fare abundantly.

"The peculiar twirl in the long tail feathers of this species renders it conspicuous and easily identified as far away as it can be seen.”

PARASITIC JAEGER.

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STERCORARIUS PARASITICUS.

13. Parasitic Jaeger. (37)

Middle tail feathers finally projecting about four inches, tapering, acuminate smaller; wing, 12-13; tarsus, 1.75 to 1.87; bill, 1.33 to 1.5; tail, 5-6, the long feathers up to 9. Adult:-Upper parts, including top of head, slight occipital crest, and crissum blackish-brown, deeper on wings and tail; chin, throat, sides of head, neck all round, and under parts to the vent, white; sides of the neck, pale yellow; quills and tail feathers with whitish shafts; feet, blue and black. Younger:-Clouded with dusky in variable pattern and amount. Young-Barred crosswise with rufous and dusky; feet, mostly yellow. There is a fuliginous stage, same as described in last species.

HAB.-Northern part of northern hemisphere, southward in winter, to South Africa and South America. Breeds in high northern districts, and winters from the Middle States and California, southward to Brazil and Chili.

Nest, on the ground on the margin of lakes or on islands, a depression in the ground, lined with grasses, a few withered leaves and feathers.

Eggs, two or three, varying much in markings; olive-drab to green, gray and brown, marked with several shades of chocolate, brown, and an obscure shade of stone-gray distributed over the entire egg.

The breeding place of the Arctic Skua is in the far north, but many go a long way south to spend the winter, and a few call at the lakes in Ontario by the way. At such places they are occasionally seen singly, mixing with the gulls and terns which pass to the south in the fall, but they are very watchful and seldom obtained. On the 16th October, 1886, Dr. Macallum secured a young female, which was shot on the Grand River, near Dunnville, just after a severe

storm.

In the report of the proceedings of the Ornithological Sub-section of the Biological Section of the Canadian Institute, Ernest E. Thompson mentions a specimen shot at Ashbridge's Bay, near Toronto, in September, 1885, which is now mounted and in possession of Mr. Loane of that city.

In the same report mention is made of a fine adult specimen which is in the museum of the Toronto University, marked “Toronto.”

Dr. Bell also reports taking a specimen at Fort George, James' Bav.

Turning to our usual authority for northern birds, Mr. Nelson says: "This tyrannical bird occurs along the entire coast-line of the Behring Sea, but is most numerous along the low marshy coast of Norton Sound, and thence south to Kuskoquim River.

"Its breeding range covers the entire region from the Aleutian Islands north to the extreme northern part of the mainland.

"At all times jaegers are given to wandering, and one is likely to find them anywhere along the coast. They are frequently seen harrying terns or gulls, to make them disgorge fish just caught. If successful, they dart down and, rising under the falling morsel, catch it in their capacious mouths. This robbery is often performed by two birds acting in unison, but whether the birds alternate in disposing of the spoil has not been observed. They are very greedy, and often swallow so much that they cannot rise to fly till a portion is disgorged."

FAMILY LARIDE. GULLS AND TERNS.

SUBFAMILY LARINÆ. GULLS.

GENUS GAVIA BOIE.

GAVIA ALBA (GUNN.).

14. Ivory Gull. (39)

Adult male:-Pure white all over; quills of the primaries, yellow; feet and legs, black; bill, dull greenish, yellow at the tip. Young:-Plumage clouded with dusky. Primaries and tail feathers, spotted with dusky. Length, 20 inches.

HAB.-Arctic seas, south in winter on the Atlantic coast of North America to Labrador and Newfoundland. Not yet found on the coast of the Pacific. Nest, on some inaccessible cliff. It is made of dry grass lined with moss and a few feathers.

Eggs, yellowish olive, with small blotches of dark brown clouded with

lilac.

Having received interesting accounts from fishermen of pure white gulls following their boats out on the lake, I tried in vain for two seasons to persuade them to take my large single gun, and bring me a specimen. Finally I got them to attach a long line to the stern of one of the boats, with a hook at the end, baited with a ciscoe, and in this way they succeeded in getting me a fine adult male of the Ivory Gull, the only one I ever obtained.

This species of gull is said to breed farther north than any other. On the islands and along the coasts of Spitzbergen it occurs sparingly. In like places on the coast of northern Siberia it is abundant, and in Greenland it is resident. It is seldom found as far south as Ontario, but the movements of all such birds are liable to be affected by wind and weather.

KITTIWAKE-GLAUCOUS GULL.

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GENUS RISSA STEPHENS.

RISSA TRIDACTYLA (LINN.).

15. Kittiwake. (40)

Hind toe appearing only as a minute knob, its claw abortive. Mantle, rather dark grayish-blue; first primary, with the whole outer web, and the entire end for about two inches, black; next one, with the end black about as far, but outer web elsewhere light, and a white speck at extreme tip; on the rest of the primaries that have black, this color decreases in extent proportionally to the shortening of the quills, so that the base of the black on all is in the same line when the wings are closed (a pattern peculiar to the species of Rissa); and these all have white apex. Bill, yellow, usually clouded with olivaceous; feet, dusky olivaceous. Rather small; 16-18; wing, 12; bill, 14-14; tarsus, about the same; middle toe and claw, longer; tail, usually slightly emarginate. In winter, nape and hind neck shaded with the color of the mantle. Young :— Bill, black; a black bar on the tail, another across the neck behind; wings and back variously patched with black; dark spots before and behind the eyes; quills mostly black.

HAB.-Arctic regions, south on the Atlantic coast in winter to the Great Lakes and the Middle States.

Nest of grass and seaweed, usually placed on cliffs or ledges of rock overhanging the water.

Eggs, two or three, greenish-gray, marked irregularly with varying shades of brown.

The Kittiwake is a species of wide distribution, being common along the coast of New England, while in the north it is found in Greenland, and has been reported from nearly all parts of the Arctic regions and many intermediate points. It breeds throughout its range, but always returns from the far north at the approach of winter. At that season it is very common around the west end of Lake Ontario, and in the summer it is one of those which assemble on the bird rocks of the St. Lawrence in such numbers as to give the rocks, when seen from a distance, the appearance of being covered with snow.

LARUS GLAUCUS (BRUNN.).

16. Glaucous Gull. (42)

Adult:-Plumage, pure white except the mantle, which is grayish-blue. Bill, gamboge yellow with a carmine patch toward the end of the lower mandible; feet, flesh color. In the young the upper parts are yellowish-white,

mottled with pale brown; breast and lower parts, gray; tail, white, mottled with brown. Length, 27 inches.

HAB.-Arctic regions, south in winter in North America to the Great Lakes and Long Island. North Pacific.

Nest of seaweed and moss placed on the ground, or rocks, or even on blocks of ice.

Eggs, two or three, varying in color from grayish-brown to white.

During the winter months the "Burgomaster," as this species is usually named, may be seen roaming around the shores of Lake Ontario, seeking what it may devour, and it is not very scrupulous either as regards quantity or quality. In the Fauna Boreali Americana, it is described as being "notoriously greedy and voracious, preying not only on fish and birds but on carrion of every kind. One which was killed in Capt. Ross' expedition disgorged an auk when it was struck, and on dissection was found to have another in its stomach."

In March, when the days begin to lengthen and the ice begins to soften, these large gulls rise from Lake Ontario, and soaring around in wide circles at a great height, pass away towards the north.

In the spring of 1884, a specimen was shot near Toronto by Mr. George Guest of that city.

On the 25th March, 1889, a fine female specimen which had been shot on the Island at Toronto, was brought to Mr. Cross, and on the 8th December, of the same year, he received another which was shot off the Queen's Wharf.

This is one of the largest and most powerful birds of the family. It is of circumpolar distribution, and is said to be one of the noisiest of those which gather together during the breeding season in the far north.

Regarding it, Mr. Nelson says: "The solitary islands of Behring Sea and all its dreary coast line are familiar to this great gull. In summer it occurs from the Aleutian Islands north to the farthest points reached by the hardy navigators in the Arctic Ocean adjoining. According to Murdoch, it is numerous at Point Barrow. At St. Michael's they appear each year from the 12th to the 30th April, following the leads in the ice as they open from the south.”

"They are the first of the spring birds to occur in the north, and their hoarse cries are welcome sounds to the seal hunter as he wanders over the ice-fields far out to sea in early spring.

"They become more and more numerous until they are very comThey wander restlessly along the coast until the ponds open on the marshes near the sea, and then, about the last half of May,

mon.