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Show 1876.] MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERCORARIINJE. 327 & S. Beitr. Vogelk. iii. p. 853 (1822); Naum. Vog. Deutsch. x. p. 506, pl. 272, 273(1840). Cataractes parasiticus, Fleming, Brit. An. p. 138 (1828); Selby, 111. Brit. Zool. ii. p. 520 (1832). Lestris richardsonii, Swain., Sw. & Rich. F. Bor.-Am. p. 433, pl. 73 (1831); Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 492 (1852); Audubon, B. Am. vii. 190, pl. 452 (1844); Gould, B. of Eur. v. pl. 441 (1837); Meyer, 111. Brit. B. vii. p. 177 (1857). Lestris parasita, Keys. & Bl. Wirb. Eur. p. 240 (1840); Midd. Sib. Reise, p. 241 (1853). Stercorarius parasiticus, Schaeff. Mus. Orn. p. 62, pl. 37 (1789) ; De Selys-L. Fn. Belg. p. 155 (1842); G. R. Gray, List B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 167(1844); Gray, Gen. Birds, iii. p. 653 (1849); Lawr. Baird's B. N. A m . 839 (1858); Blakiston (B. N.W. A.), Ibis, 1863, p. 152; Degl. & G. Orn. Eur. ii. p. 397 (1867); B. Ross, Nat.-Hist. Rev. 1862, p. 289; Coues, Pr. Phil. Ac. 1863, p. 132; Newton, Ibis, 1865, p. 510 (Spitzbergen); Andersson, B. of Damara Land, p. 357 (1872); Gould, B. G. Brit. v. p. 80 (187 ) ; Hume, Stray Feathers, p. 268 (1873) (Sindh); Buller, B. New Zealand, p. 268 (1873); Coues, Rep. Prybilov Is. no. 541 (1874); Sharpe, Voy. 'Erebus and Terror,' i. App. p. 32 (1875); Newton, B. Greenland, p. 107, Arct. Man. (1875). Lestris parasiticus, Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 208 (1857). Lestris parasiticus, var. coprotheres, Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 209. Lestris thuliaca, Preyer, Reise n. Island (1862). Lestris parasitus, Th. v. Heuglin, Ibis, 1872, p. 65. Lestris spinicaudus, Hardy, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1854, p. 657. Stercorarius spinicauda, Layard, B. S. Af. p. 366 (1867). Stercorarius parasitica, Dall & Bannister, Tr. Chic. Ac. i. p. 303 (1869) (Alaska). Stercorarius asiaticus, Hume, Stray Feathers, p. 269 (1873) (Sindh). Lestris boji, schleepii, benickii, Brehm, and Stercorarius tephras, Malmgren, are believed to be this, whilst Lestris brachyrhynchus and L. microrhynchus, Brehm, are ascribed to the next; but it would be a mere waste of time to verify Brehm's supposed species. Dr. Coues follows those authors who have chosen to divert Linnaeus's name of L. parasiticus to this species-a supposition utterly negatived by the description in the Syst. Nat. p. 226, which is based upon that in his ' Fauna Suecica,' p. 55, No. 156. Nothing could well be clearer than his statement:-" rectricibus duabus intermediis lonyissimis," which can only apply to the Buffon's or Long-tailed Skua; but, as if to make assurance doubly sure, Linnaeus adds "remiges nigrae, rachi 1. 2. nivea." The natural inference from drawing especial attention to the fact that the shafts of the first and second primaries are white, is clearly that those of the other primaries are not white. Now the particular characteristic by which "Richardson's Skua," may be distinguished at any age beyond that of the nestling, is that the shafts of the other primaries are conspicuously lighter than in those of Buffon's Skua, in which |