68 E. LÖNNBERG, CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FAUNA OF SOUTH GEORGIA. 



lives in large flocks along the shore of the fjords. Especially when it is low tide it 

 is found at the shore feeding on small animals and algse. 



»The calling note of the male is a short whistling which is repeated several 

 times», Sörling observes. 



The flocks consist as well summer as winter both of males and females but the 

 former are more numerous. In the summer they are not the least shy, but in the 

 winter very shy and wary. 



The nests are built in the tussock-grass. Von den Steinen (12) found one 

 such and says that it was well lined with whitish grey down. 



The norwegian sailors found at the Moraine Fjord a ducks nest with 5 eggs 

 the 7th of Dec. 1904. It was concealed in the tussock-grass and the eggs were de- 

 scribed as yellowish and »round». 



This discovery was made in the evening, and the following day Sörling hur- 

 i'ied to the place with a sailor as guide, but it was too late. The many visitors 

 the previous evening had trod down the grass so that the teals nest was laid open 

 to the sharp yes of the ever greedy Great Skua, this pest of the Antarctic region. 

 It had then, of course, appeared on the scene and eaten the eggs. From this and 

 other experiences Sörling feels sure that a good many of the numerous teals that 

 breed round Cumberland Bay are robbed ' by the Great Skua, which also is ready if it 

 gets an opportunity to snatch away the young ducklings, although these are very 

 elever to conceal themselves. The young ducklings seem to be hatched as a rule 

 about the middle of Dec. Von den Steinen (12) observed the first ducklings the 

 18 of Dec. 1882. In »Jason» Harbour Sörling found a brood of 5 ducklings the 

 13th of Dec. 1904, but they managed to conceal themselves in the grass before he 

 could secure any of them. The following day he ran across another brood, also con- 

 sisting of 5 in, a rivulet with clear water which found its way through the high 

 tussock-grass to the Moraine Fjord. Then he succeeded in catching one but the 

 others managed to escape diving and running. They exhibited a wonderful agility 

 and cleverness to hide in the grass, Sörltng says, and von den Steinen (12) reports 

 a similar experience. He says that he several times heard ducklings quite near, but 

 when he tried to pursue them, he was not even able to detect them. And sometimes, 

 when he had observed them, they disappeared under his hands. This great agility 

 and faculty of hiding is of the outmost importance for the existence of the species 

 when it has such a deadly foe as the Great Skua. 



To judge from the fact that 5 eggs or 5 y oungs were repeatedly observed this 

 number may be regarded as the average. 



' Some of tlie robbed teals, lav eggs again and try to raise a new brood wMch explains that von 

 hen Steinen (12) found recently liatelad youngs so late as in Febr, 



