450 G. HJ. 'Verrill — Some Birds and Eggs collected at 



Order, LONGIPENNES. 

 Family, Stekcorariidje. 



13. Stercorarius antarcticus (Less.). Southern Skua. "Sea Hen." 



Lestris antarcticus Lesson, Traite d'Ornith., 1831, p. 616. 



Stercorarius antarcticus Gray, List Anseres, Brit. Mus., p. 167: Saunders, P. Z. S., 

 1876, p. 321, et 1877, p. 799; Sharpe, Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc, vol. 168, 1879, p. 109, 

 pi. vii, figs. 1 and 2 ; Saunders, op. cit., p. 163 ; id., Voy. Chal., vol. ii, Zool., p. 139. 



BupTiagus skua antarcticus Kidder and Coues, Bull. Nat. Mus., No. 2, p. 9, 1876 ; iid., 

 op. cit.. No. 3, p. 9, 1877. 



Three eggs from Gough Island. 



Mr. Comer writes : "These birds are the same at all the islands in 

 the South Atlantic. At Gough Island they commence laying the 

 middle of September.* They lay two eggs. If these are taken they 

 will lay two more. When the penguins lay, the sea hens come ashore 

 in large numbers, and get their living by robbing the nests, and catch- 

 ing the young penguins. They also kill young albatrosses and all 

 small birds they can catch. The sea hen, as it grows old, becomes 

 light brown." While he was on Gough Island he killed about 300 

 of these birds for their feathers. 



The three eggs obtained measure 2-62 X 1-98, 2-90X2-04, and 2 90 X 

 2*00. They are regularly ovate in shape with a rather coarse, granu- 

 lar texture. The ground-color is of different shades of olive drab, 

 spotted and splashed with sepia brown, olive brown, and slaty gray, 

 the latter color lying more beneath the surface. 



Family, Larid^. 



14. Larus dominicanus Licht. Southern Black-backed Gull. "Gull," 



Larus marinus, partim, Vieill.. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., xxi., p. 507. 



Larus dominicanus Lichtenstein, Verz. d. Doubl., p. 82, 1823; Kidder and Coues, 

 Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 2, p. 13; iid., op. cit , No. 3, p 10; Sharpe, Philos. Trans. 

 Eoy. Soc, vol. 168, p. 107; Saunders, op. cit., p. 163; id., P. Z. S., 1877, p. 799; id., 

 Voy. of Chal., Zool., vol. ii, p. 139. 



Two eggs from South Georgia and two from Kerguelen. 



There are none of Mr. Comer's notes that apply to this bird, 

 except, that in enumerating the birds of Gough Island, he says, "A 

 viery few sea gulls, do not think there were over 6 around the island." 

 These I suppose were of this species, as besides them, he speaks of 

 two species of " mackerel gulls." 



* In his journal he speaks of getting an ^go;, at Gough Island on Sept. 24th. 



