232 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
It was first obtained at Possession Island, Victoria Land, where a 
pair had taken up their residence in the midst of a colony of the 
Adélie Penguins, and subsequently examples were obtained or seen 
nearly as far south as 78°, while long. 178° W. was the furthest 
record in the direction of America. The Belgica brought back four 
examples (which I have examined) from about 70° S. and between 
82° and 86° W., in the ice pack. The Southern Cross obtained a fine 
series, from the downy nestling upwards; these young birds being 
of a dark slate-grey, and very different from those of the other Great 
Skuas, of which four representatives are now recognised. The species 
known as the ‘Bonxie, of the Shetlands, frequenting the North 
Atlantic, is not known to the south of the coast of Morocco; but 
in the Southern Ocean, from the New Zealand area to Heard, 
Kerguelen, Marion and Crozet Islands, and westward to the Falk- 
lands, is found a larger and darker bird (Megalestris anturctica), 
which seems to breed as far as the South Shetlands and Cockburm 
Island, and I have examined a specimen obtained by the Dundee 
whalers. Some six or seven degrees of latitude separate this dark 
form from McCormick’s Skua, which is a much paler bird, almost 
dirty straw-colour about the head and neck. The fourth species, 
M. chilensis, has the under parts of a warm chestnut colour. Further 
specimens of these Southern Skuas, with notes on their geographical 
‘distribution, are much wanted, but anything approaching the exter- 
mination of a colony is to be deprecated. 
A Gull which approaches the Antarctic circle is the Southern 
Black-backed Gull (Larus dominicanus), which is recorded by 
McCormick as breeding at Cockburn Island, and was obtained by 
Capt. Fairweather, of the Balena, in 64° 18'S. Northward, it is widely 
distributed on the coasts of South America and South Africa, and 
nests on most of the islands from the South Shetlands to the Falk- 
lands and South Georgia, and eastward—omitting Tristan da Cunha— 
to the Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen and Heard Islands, and 
so to the New Zealand area. 
It is also to Capt. Fairweather, of the Balena, that the British 
Museum is indebted for by far the most Southern example of another 
and very remarkable Gull, from the vicinity of the South Shetland 
Islands, in 64° 55'S., whence it was originally described by Traill,* 
namely Larus scoresbit, This species has a very stout crimson bill; 
head, neck and under parts of a lavender grey, and a black mantle; 
but the curious part about it is, that in the immature stage it has a 
very marked sooty hood, which gives it a superficial resemblance to 
* ‘Mem, Wern. Soc.,’ iv. p, 114, 1823. 
