34 COLLETT AND NANSEN. ACCOUNT OF THE BIRDS, [norw. POL. EXP. 



willing to give up its prey, was so hard pressed, that in its distress it would 

 sit down on the flat ice, where the skua never attacked it; but though leaving 

 it alone, it would always alight on the ice some distance off, and there wait 

 patiently. After a while, the kittiwake, thinking itself .safe, would fly away. 

 The skua, following it with its eyes, would remain quiet, and allow it to fly 

 some distance undisturbed; but it would then suddenly fly straight at the 

 bird once more, and the wild chase would begin anew, until the kittiwake 

 had at last to pay its tribute. Indeed, it even happened that this manoeuvre 

 was repeated twice. It seemed an almost ridiculous waste of energy, for it 

 would apparently require far less effort to catch another crustacean on the 

 surface of the sea where there were plenty of them; but Nansen never ob- 

 served a skua catching anything in the water. Even if the booty dropped 

 by the kittiwake, fell into the water or on to the ice, before the skua could 

 catch it — which, however, very seldom happened — , the skua would often 

 fly away without making any further effort to capture it. 



As a rule, the skuas obsei-ved were light-bellied. 



They were still seen daily in the neighbourhood of the winter hut during 

 the early days of September, chasing the kittiwakes. They seemed to have 

 their^haunt by a little pond, some distance to the east of the hut, where they 

 had possibly had a nesting-place. They disappeared with Bissa tridadyla, 

 when the water froze over towards the middle of September. 



In the spring (1896), they had not yet appeared at the winter hut when 

 the travellers left it on May 19th. 



They were frequently observed at Cape Flora, especially near a little 

 pond to the north-west of Elmwood, where a pair evidently had a nest. 

 Several nests of this skua were found about Cape Flora by the men of the 

 Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition ^ 



During the homeward voyage in the 'Windward', several skuas belonging 

 to this species were seen in the Barents Sea, especially along the edge of 

 the ice, e. g. on August 9th (1896). The light-bellied, as well as the dark- 

 coloured variety, was observed. 



Clarke and Bruce, 'On the Avifauna of Franz Josef Land' (The Ibis, April, 1898, p. 269). 

 Also 'The Mammalia and Birds of Franz Josef Land' (Proceedings of the Royal 

 Physical Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. XIV, 1899, p. 104). 



