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PLATE LXXXIV. M'CORMICK'S SKUA GULL. 



FIG. 1. From a photograph by Mr FORD (Fo. 158, ^-plate), Dec. 1902 ; M'Cormick's 

 Skuas (Megalestris maficormicki), bathing in a freshwater pool, near 

 ' Discovery's ' winter- quarters. 



FIG. 2. From a photograph by Mr FORD (Fo. 151, ^-plate) ; M'Cormick's Skua; 

 Dec. 1902. 



Freshwater pools occur in sheltered valleys at the height of summer, as the 

 result of the absorption of the sun's radiant heat by dark rock, which melts the 

 snow and ice adjacent to it, In this way, so long as the sun is not obscured by 

 clouds, there may be open water-pools when the temperature of the air is many 

 degrees below freezing point. 



The Skuas were fond of bathing at these pools ; but so accustomed were they 

 to satisfy their thirst with snow instead of water, that even here fan-shaped grooves 

 were scooped in the snow by their bills, and were to be found all round the edges 

 of the pool. 



M'Cormick's Skua is migratory, following the Penguins southward to their 

 breeding haunts in spring, and nesting in close neighbourhood with them. They 

 lay two eggs in a depression of the morainic gravel ; but of the two chicks which 

 are hatched by each pair of birds, not more than one survives the first week or so, 

 the other invariably disappearing. 



Their food consists of Penguins' eggs and chicks, fish and crustaceans, as well 

 as the eggs and chicks of their own kind, and in fact anything they can get. 



See Nat. Hist. Rep., vol. ii., Aves, pp. 64-76. 



