66 EDWARD A. AVILSON. 



In the South Victoria Land quadrant of the Antarctic area the occurrence of 

 McCormick's Skua {Megalestrif: maccormicki) is limited to the ice {see fig. 41, p. 68). 

 Nor does it in any other part of the Antarctic seem to wander into more temperate 

 regions, its place being taken in the sub-Antarctic area by the more robust form 

 Megalestris antarctica. Having accustomed ourselves to the appearance of the latter, 

 which was with us day by day on our outward voyage for months, we had no difficulty 

 in at once recognising the smaller and paler form of the ice pack as a distinct species. 

 From January 5th, when we met with it, onwards throughout the summer months 

 we had it always with us. Hardly a day passed in the summer but McCormick's 

 Skua was noted, though not always in excessive numbers, except when we neared 

 an Adelie penguin rookery. Then the Skua would always become abundant, and the 

 bloody remnants of penguin chickens would be sufficient testimony to the nature of 

 its needs. 



In the "Antarctic Manual" Mr. Howard Saunders gives 78° S. lat. for the 

 southernmost occurrence of McCormick's Skua, and about 70° S. lat. as its limit to the 

 north. These must now be extended, and in doing so this gull must be given the 

 distinction of having been farther south than any other known bird. We met it first 

 in January, in the ice pack of 68° S. lat., but on our return north two }'ears later we 

 saw it for the last time at the Balleny Islands on March 1st, when we were in lat. 

 67° 20" S. And for its southern range we saw two or three examples so far south as 

 80° 20' S. An explanation of this occurrence will be found below, though it is right to 

 say at once that in a sense we drew them to us from about 78° S. lat. 



The variety of colouring in this skua was very noticeable at Cape Adare, where we 

 landed for a few hours on January 9th. The colour of the head and neck and breast 

 varies from a very light buff, or almost white, to a dark rich brown. Everywhere on 

 the higher slopes the bird was nesting, and young of all stages as well as incubated 

 eggs were taken on that day. 



On January 15th we entered an ice-bound inlet, Lady Newnes Bay, and again met 

 with McCormick's Skua, in attendence this time on a colony of Weddell's Seals and a 

 company of moulting Emperor Penguins. The Skuas were not nesting here, for we 

 were surrounded l)y ice cliffs and snow-covered rolling slopes. They were more than 

 ever tame and fearless, and could be approached to within a yard or two as they 

 fed on the blubber of the seals we had killed for food. 



Adrift here for ten hours with three companions on an ice-floe, 1 had time to 

 watch some of the birds that kept us company during tlie hours of the night. The 

 Skua we noticed sleeping as it squatted on the ice-floes, from 2 a.m. till 7 in the 

 morning, and a trait in the Inrd which we found to be very characteristic was the 

 habit of settling, the one just ahead of its mate, both with outstretched wings and 

 head well up, vociferating with loud and rapidly repeated cries before closing up the 

 wings. Their habits are in every way like those of other Skuas, and having no 

 other gulls to attack, as have their northern relatives, they content themselves by 



