Volume 40, Plate XXVIII / Ornithology (Birds)

Richardson’s Skua

Lestris Richardsonii

The most common and most strongly formed British skua, distinguished by swift flight and dark plumage, the central tail feathers exceeding the others by some inches, the plumage ranging from greyish clove-brown to dark brown with white under parts. Seen about the islands in late autumn, it breeds in small colonies on Hebridean, Orkney, and Shetland islands, making a nest of dried grasses on hill summits or marshy ground, and visits Massachusetts and Maine in winter.