THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 101 



FIELD NOTES ON THE GREAT SKUA GULL. 



By Robert Hall. 

 [Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Wth June, 1900.) 

 Skua Gulls are of more than ordinary interest at the present 

 moment, as ornithologist and oologist are bent upon knowing 

 more than is available. Oologists are anxious to know if the 

 smaller species breed in the Southern Hemisphere. The eggs in 

 various collections are those that have been received from 

 Norway or other northern lands. Professor Newton is of opinion 

 that the two small ones on our list, Stercorarius crepidatus, 

 Banks, and S. pomatorhinus, Brisson, have their stronghold in 

 the northern hemisphere, and pass into the southern for the 

 winter, e.g., become to us as summer residents, while Mr. 

 Howard Saunders considers Richardson's Skua, S. crepidatus, 

 an all the year round bird in the south as in the north. 



The nomenclature of the smaller species is a bewildering 

 puzzle. That certain specimens stay in the southern hemisphere 

 while the same species is breeding in the northern is certain, as I 

 have seen both phases of one or other Stercorarius in Port 

 Phillip Bay in March, and late enough to lead me to believe they 

 would not summer in the northern breeding-grounds. Where 

 they (Stercorarius) breed in the south is not generally known, if 

 known at all. 



The range of Megalestris antarctica, Lesson, the Great Skua, is 

 from the Shetland Islands past Kerguelen's Land to New 

 Zealand, and sparingly between the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, 

 and Southern Australia. It is a bold and strong bird, capable of 

 long flights (1,100 miles from land). By a singular parasitic 

 habit it lives by frightening other birds into disgorging portions 

 of their partially digested food. By means of this habit it lives 

 for nine months — that is, until the nesting desire takes it to land. 

 It then captures prey for itself by fair, or probably by foul, 

 means — in the first case, for example, by capturing rabbits, and 

 in the second by taking eggs from nests when the birds leave 

 them for a few moments. 



My experience of the species led me to consider it a island 

 substitute for a mainland hawk, acting in much the same way. 

 For the first week on Kerguelen Island I could only realize the 

 bird as one of prey, and not a web-footed species, especially as 

 it builds its nest away from the beach and appears warlike. 

 Rabbits and petrels are typical examples of their prey ; less so 

 cormorants. I was interested in seeing one above the entrance 

 to a rabbit's burrow waiting for the animal to come out. The 

 entrails, and I think the eyes, alone appeared to be taken out of 

 the carcasses I observed lying about. The eggs, measuring 2.5 

 inches x 1.5 inches, were swallowed whole after being slightly 

 cracked. 



