AVES STERCORARIID^. 233 



not more than half a dozen yards off, and was making off with it in its 

 beak, carrying it easily, when I brought it down with a second shot, the 

 duck thus costing me two barrels." 



Kerguelen's Land, January, 1874. "Some of the teal were breeding at 

 the time of our visit ; some with young full-fledged and already away 

 from the nest ; others with eggs. The nest is a neat one, placed under 

 a tuft of grass, and lined with down torn from the breast of the parent 

 bird. There were five eggs in one nest that I found. 



"The duck, when put up off the nest, to effect which the nest requires 

 almost to be trodden upon, or when found with her young away from the 

 nest, flutters a few yards only, as if maimed, and pitches again, and can- 

 not be frightened into a long flight. It is curious that the bird should 

 have retained this instinct where there are no four-footed or human 

 enemies ; possibly she finds it a successful 7'iise when the brood is attacked 

 by the skuas. 



"The young must fall constantly a prey to these ever-watchful Skuas, for 

 in most cases I found only a single young one following the mother. 

 There were no young met with in the condition of flappers, and the gen- 

 eral breeding season was probably only about to begin, as it was with 

 many birds of the island. The greater part of the birds were yet in flocks." 



Amongst the Southern Ice, February-March, 1874. "Besides these two 

 Petrels we saw when at the edge of the pack, the Sooty Albatross [Dio- 

 medea fuUginosa), the Giant Petrel [Ossifraga giganfea), Majaqttetis [sic] 

 ceqninoctialis and the Cape Pigeon. These birds all left us when we entered 

 the edge of the pack-ice ; they appear to remain at its very margin ; but 

 in the ice we met with a Skua [Stercorarms antanticus), which bird ranges 

 very far south, and was seen in Possession Island, within the Antarctic 

 Circle, by Ross." 



Dr. Kidder says: "The nests are shallow cavities in the long grass, 

 sparingly lined with grass-stems, and always situated in a dry spot. 

 Eggs are only two in number in the four instances observed ; first found 

 November 17. A single t^g was found December 20 in a nest robbed 

 December 3. The shape is very broad ovoid, tapering rapidly to a sharp 

 point. Shell is brittle and of loose texture, being composed of irreglarly 

 prismatic bodies set side by side perpendicularly to the surface. Exter- 

 nally it is coarsely granular. Color is dark olive drab, marked superficially 

 by irregular blotches of Vandyke-brown. Deeper markings appear as 



