THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 103 



yet they did not move. They were both bold and inquisitive. 

 The first few pebbles were pursued, although passing unpleasantly 

 close. If you place killed ducks behind you while resting a 

 Skua will quietly arrive and pick the flesh from every large bone 

 in a few minutes. A seal's tongue was nicely cleaned and placed 

 on a bank, but a Skua, shortly after, was found comfortably 

 perched upon what was left of it, finishing the last portion. Any- 

 one would think Skuas always had empty stomachs, as they 

 have audacity enough for any venture in the provender-providing 

 way. Constantly I found it to be a cannibal. One sex was 

 killed by one of our men in the morning, and by noon it was 

 nearly all eaten by the other sex. This occurred with the paired 

 birds. There is an action about the species I did not quite 

 understand, because we had stunned one of a pair which was 

 pestering us at close quarters. It was dazed, and tottering 

 round ; it could not rise for some moments. In the meantime the 

 mate pecked it unmercifully as if angry with it for showing 

 cowardice. Most likely it was not aware of the circumstances, as 

 the knock was given in a moment. The fallen warrior soon flew 

 away. It appears to me to have the disposition of the pugnacious 

 Kalij Pheasant. Mr. Frederick Wilson writes : — " On one occa- 

 sion I shot a male, which lay fluttering on the ground in its death 

 struggles, when another rushed out of the jungle and attacked it 

 with the greatest fury." 



Even ducks and Giant Petrels were procured for museum pur- 

 poses with a stick. A camera leg procured nearly all the species, 

 and only on two occasions did I shoot birds. These also could 

 have been clubbed at a later date. 



December is the month for egg-laying. I found hard-sat eggs on 

 2nd January, measuring (a) 2.9 inches x 1.95 inches, (b) 2.85 inches 

 x 1.85 inches, (c) 3.05 inches x 2.15 inches. On two occasions I 

 found a nest very close to a solitary one of Diomedea chionoptera, 

 Salv. The Albatross seldom left the eggs, and when sitting it 

 could easily defend itself. The Skua knows what the " clipping " 

 of its mandibles means should it get too close. On 24th January 

 downy young were about Greenland Harbour. In Christmas 

 Harbour, also of Kerguelen Island, on 4th January I counted 

 five pairs of downy young in or near their nests. On first 

 sight of me they stayed in their nests on the ground, but 

 when I returned in an hour or more they had left. This, no 

 doubt, was the result of the parents' provision for their offspring. 

 The young are brownish-grey, with bill and eyes black, and slaty 

 legs. Nests are placed in Azorella grass, which is the only natural 

 bed on the island that is tolerably dry. Unlike the other gulls, it 

 does not make a nest beyond tearing into shreds portions of this 

 strange grass, and sitting upon the whole. The close surround- 

 ings are well beaten down by the parents' feet, and remnants of 



