A bard picks up a lot of stray knowledge while wandering the land and learning stories from other bards. A bard may make a special bardic knowledge check with a bonus equal to his level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether he knows some relevant information about magical items.What does this mean? Is my Bards level just added to skills like Knowledge: Arcana and Alchemy when making a skill check? Does this special ability replace the two skills I've named above?

Thanks.

I suspect that it's represented by a bonus to any "lore" checks, which I suppose are Knowledge Arcana.

If it is, I can't seem to find any bonus. BTW, Alchemy is also used for identifying potions.