i72 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Support is given to this statement by a specimen from a position as far west as the 

 Cape of Good Hope, where it would be reasonable to expect a representative of the 

 Kerguelen race if it really had a separate existence ; but on grounds of measurement the 

 African bird should be placed in C. s. lonnbergi. 



Another specimen, from Travancore, in the possession of Mr H. Whistler, should 

 also be included in the lonnbergi subspecies. C. s. intercedens should be abandoned and 

 the birds from Kerguelen and the Crozets included in C. s. lonnbergi. 



South Georgia. The statements with regard to the Kerguelen birds apply also to 

 those from South Georgia; there are no plumage differences of importance and the 

 measurements of the nine specimens of which data are available fall almost without 

 exception within the range of the dimensions of C. s. lonnbergi (Fig. i). It follows that 

 the section of C. s. clarkei (Mathews), which has been stated to occupy South Georgia, 

 should be included in C. s. lonnbergi. 



South Orkneys. In the matter of plumage Eagle Clarke (191 5) states that in a series 

 from the South Orkneys there are two types which, however, do not differ in size. One 

 is a dark form which has few and sometimes no pale marks on the mantle, while the 

 other is lighter with many pale marks on the back and sometimes on the breast. The 

 pale form had "the yellow streaks on the neck much more numerous and pronounced 

 than in the darker birds ; and they agreed with the form described by Saunders ... as 

 inhabiting the Falklands except that they are not smaller than the ordinary dark form" 

 (of the South Orkneys). " One of these light birds was observed to be mating with one 

 of the dark examples." This occurrence of two roughly distinguishable types — a light 

 and a dark — is common among the Brown Skuas, but there is no real division between 

 the two phases, which grade into one another (p. 165). 



There are no specimens from the South Orkneys in the British Museum ; the measure- 

 ments of Lowe and Kinnear are taken from the series in the Royal Scottish Museum 

 and these are summarized in Table II. The average wing measurement is rather greater 

 than that for South Georgia, and so is the tarsal length, but the bill length is rather less. 

 That is to say in wing and tarsal measurement the South Orkney birds are nearer to the 

 New Zealand group than are those from South Georgia. 



Within the limits of the South Orkney group of specimens the bill varies as much as 

 11 mm. and the tarsus 8 mm., whereas the greatest difference from the New Zealand 

 specimens is 4 mm. for the bill and 3 mm. for the tarsus. I do not consider that the 

 South Orkney birds can be separated as part of C. s. clarkei on the basis of small and 

 inconstant differences in measurements. Like those from South Georgia, therefore, the 

 South Orkney skuas must be included in C. s. lonnbergi because the differences in 

 measurements are so small and no separation is possible on the basis of plumage 

 differentiation. 



South Shetlands. In the South Shetlands the position is one of some interest. 

 Details of twelve specimens are available, ten being in the British Museum and two in 

 Paris. In the paper by Lowe and Kinnear (1930, p. 118), it will be observed that the 

 list of C. s. clarkei includes only ten from the South Shetlands — those in the British 



