78 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



as shy winter visitors, and only occasionally can 

 we sit down quietly and study their interesting 

 habits. Here all was different. Our camp was 

 placed on the banks of a stream where the Long- 

 tailed Ducks, the Barrow's Golden-eyes and the 

 Scaup fed and played within a few yards without 

 the slightest sign of fear, and but for the flies it 

 would have been delightful to lie in the sun and 

 watch them. 



One evening, as I strolled up the river to catch 

 a trout for supper, I saw something that was quite 

 new to me. I was sitting on a high bank preparing 

 a cast of trout flies when a pair of Richardson's 

 (Arctic) Skuas came sailing up the stream, on the 

 banks of which five or six female Long-tailed Ducks 

 were sitting with their newly-hatched broods. All 

 these ducks crouched as if frightened of the Skuas, 

 and at the same moment another Long-tailed Duck 

 came rushing across the river with all her babies 

 following in a bunch behind her. In a second 

 both Skuas dashed down, and one of them picked 

 up a duckling, and, as far as I could see, swallowed 

 it alive and kicking. Meanwhile the maternal 

 duck had reached the shallows, and erected her 

 breast for a moment to keep off the other Skua. 

 But it was only for a minute. The marauder, 

 much too active for her, picked up and swallowed 

 a youngster before the terrified mother's eyes. I 

 had no idea that Skuas were such destructive 

 creatures to the young birds of other species, and 

 the fact is not mentioned in any Natural History 

 with which I am acquainted. Yet this scene of 

 murder must be of frequent occurrence in the 

 summer time where the Skuas have few gulls and 



