ORNITHOLOGY OF THE BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION. 209 
scanning the ground for Lemmings; in that position the two long 
feathers projecting beyond the outspread tail are very remarkable. 
When the visitor is at a little distance from the nest, the note of 
the Skua is exactly like the whine of ayoung puppy. On getting 
nearer this becomes a harsh, and at length deafening, screech. 
Skuas’ eggs are easily to be found when the habits of the birds 
are understood, though from the uniform monotony of the 
ground’s surface, and their being laid on the bare earth, it would 
otherwise be a matter of chance. Ata couple of hundred yards 
from the nest, one of the birds—I believe the male—flies to meet 
the intruder; at about a hundred yards the hen, having left the 
nest, joins in; and then the attack and the din begin, rising or 
falling regularly as the nest is approached or departed from. At 
length, when both birds become uncontrollably enraged and auda- 
cious in their attacks, one may be certain the eggs are close by. 
I have often found their nests thus, scarcely troubling myself to 
look at the ground until the proper moment had arrived, and I 
was then tolerably certain to find their eggs close by my feet. 
By the 7th July the young were beginning to chip their way 
through the shell, and in a few days more were hatched. Some 
of our Esquimaux dogs became such skilful hunters after young 
birds, that those which had escaped from the shell had even a 
worse chance of subsequently preserving their existence. Hence 
young birds of any species were of great rarity. I have also 
observed that the Arctic Fox eats the Skuas’ eggs as well as 
those of the Snowy Owl. Skuas are most powerful and graceful 
flyers, and seem to be more than a match for any of the animals 
of these regions: they will attack hares; I have watched a pair 
beating one about the head with their wings in so cruel a fashion 
that it seemed quite merciful to shoot it. In the late summer I 
have seen, on one or two occasions, these birds alighting on, and 
sitting for some time upon, fresh water in the neighbourhood 
of Discovery Bay. In the early season both sexes have the 
under parts from beak to vent snowy-white, with a tinge of golden 
yellow upon either side of the upper part of the neck. The 
breast becomes gradually clouded during the breeding-season, 
and before its close, the white feathers of the upper part have 
become brown. Before leaving their breeding-haunts the 
majority of these birds have their brown zone conspicuous above 
the white of the belly; it varies much, however, in extent and 
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