BUPHAGUS SKUA ANTARCTICUS. 11 



eyes, so that he had to shoot the skua to secure his game. November 

 21, in order to settle the question whether they attack and kill their 

 own game when it is unhurt, Mr. Stanley and I dug up, by the aid of 

 the dog, a well-grown and nearly-fledged young bird (supposed to be of 

 Majaqueus cequinoctialis), as large as an ordinary domestic fowl. A pair 

 of skuas being near at hand, watching our i^roceedings, I threw the 

 young bird up into the air, so that it flew some distance and alighted 

 perhaps two hundred yards away from us. One of the skuas immedi- 

 ately flew up to it, and killed it by repeated blows upon the head with 

 its beak; the other remaining at some distance, on guard, as I at first 

 thought, but, as afterward appeared, afraid of its mate ; for, while we 

 stood watching the first skua eating its capture (nearly as large as 

 itself), the other approached by degrees, uttering short, plaintive chirps, 

 but not daring to share in the meal. When, after a few minutes, we 

 drove them off, the abdomen of the petrel had been torn open, and its 

 entrails partly devoured. 1 could not see that its claws were used in 

 tearing its prey; it seeming rather to depend upon the strength of its 

 beak. On another occasion (December 18), a fully-grown Majaqueus^ 

 sitting, which had been dug up and probably slightly bruised by the 

 dog, alighted in the sea after a short flight, and was at once fiercely 

 attacked by a skua. The petrel showed extreme fear, uttering piercing 

 shrill cries, and turning over to fight at each swoop, but finally took 

 wing again and escaped. 



1 saw this skua on one occasion feeding amicably with the gulls 

 astern of the ship when at anchor (December 28) ; and, on January 18 

 one was seen flying about the Monongahela for a few minutes, she being 

 then about three hundred miles from the nearest land. As a general 

 rule, its habits are terrestrial, and on the few occasions when, probably 

 after poor success in hunting, I have seen it alight in the water, it has 

 held its wings up jperpendicularly, like a butterfly, as if afraid of wetting 

 them. At the pairing-season, this trick of holding up the wings becomes 

 quite a prominent characteristic. Two will alight upon a knoll, quite near 

 together, holding their wings i^erpendicularly in the air, and set up a 

 vociferous cackling. The note is loud, harsh, and hoarse, suggestive of 

 the cry of the gull. 



I have never seen Bitphagus pursue gulls to make them disgorge their 

 food. On the contrary, both gulls and terns combine to drive them away 

 as soon as they come into their neighborhood, particularly while nesting. 

 I even on one occasion saw a single gull driving a skua away from 

 the neighborhood of its nest. On the 15th of October, I shot and wing- 



