A Reference List of the Birds of New Zealand. 249 



Synonyms : — 



Megalestris antarctica Buller, Siippl. vol. i. p. 169. [The type- 

 locality of Lestris antarcticus Lesson, Traits d'Orn. 1831, p. 616, 

 is Falklaud Islands, and this is better considered as a subspecies 

 of C. skua Briinnich {cf. Mathews, Birds Austr. vol. ii. 1913, 

 p. 493).J 



Range : — New Zealand Seas : Chatham Islands and 

 Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand (breeding). 



Catharacta maccormicki maccormicki (Saunders). South 

 Polar Skua. 



Siercorarius maccormicki Saunders, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 

 vol. iii. 1893, p. xii : Victoria Land. 



Synonym : — 



Megalestris maccormicki Buller, Suppl. vol. i. p. 170. 



Range : — New Zealand (one occurrence, Stewart Island, 

 1895); Antarctic, Victoria Land (breeding). 



Genus STERCORARIUS. 



Stercorarius SchaefFer, Mus. Ornith. 1789, p. 62. 

 Type (by monotypy) : S. parasiticus (Linne). 



Stercorarius parasiticus (Linne). Arctic Skua. 



Larus jjarasiiicus Linne, Syst. Nat. 10th ed. 1758, p. 136: 

 coasts of Sweden. 



Synonym : — 



Stercorarius crepidatus Buller, Suppl. vol. i. p. 171. [It has been 

 recently shown that the bird commonly known as 8. crepidatus 

 (Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 1789, p. 602) is the true Z. parasiticus 

 Linne.] 



Range : — New Zealand Seas (accidental visitor) ; extra- 

 limital. 



Note : — So much confusion exists through the uncertain 

 naming by European ornithologists of birds killed in New 

 Zealand that it is quite impossible to decide from the literature 

 whether all the references belong to one species. We are 

 inclined to believe that both the Arctic and Long-tailed 

 Skuas have occurred in New Zealand waters. It should 

 be noted that in BuUer's first edition of the ' Birds of New 



