STEECOEAEIID^ STEKCOEAEIUS 453 



Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island, the Crozets and Kerguelen. 

 Further south in the Antarctic pack ice and on the Antarctic 

 continent it is replaced by another closely allied species (S. 

 maccormicki). 



The Southern Skua visits the South African coasts during the 

 southern winter. It has been recorded from the following places : 

 Walvisch Bay, July (Fleck), Table Bay, April (Layard), False 

 Bay, July and August (Turbyne in South African Mus.), Algoa 

 Bay (Swinburne). 



Habits. — The Southern Skua is a most rapacious and blood- 

 thirsty bird ; it is at once the Hawk and the Vulture of the 

 Southern Seas. On Kerguelen it chases and kills the Blue Petrels 

 and nearly all other birds, watching for them to emerge from their 

 nest-burrows in the evening, and again on their return from fishing 

 in the early morning ; it also robs the Gulls and Gannets of the 

 fishes they have caught, nor does it despise carrion, such as dead 

 Seals and Whales, or, in fact, any garbage of an edible nature ; 

 the stomachs of some examples recently obtained for the South 

 African Museum contained the remains of fish and " bully beef." 

 They are very bold and fearless, and will fly in the face of intruders 

 in defence of their nest and young. The voice is a croak some- 

 thing like that of a Crow. 



The Southern Skua is not known to breed nearer than the 

 Crozet Islands, whence Mr. Layard received eggs obtained by 

 Captain Armson. A good account of its habits in Kerguelen is 

 given by Mr. Hall {Ibis, 1900, p. 8). 



776. Stercorarius crepidatus. Bichardsmi's Skua. 



Larus crepidatus, Ba/nka, in Cook's Voy., Hawkesworth's ed. ii, p. 15 



(1773). 

 Lestris spinioauda, Hardy, Bev. Mag. Zool. 1854, p. 657. 

 Stercorarius spinioauda, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 366 (1867). 

 Stercorarius parasiticus, {nee Linn.) Gurney, in Andersson's B. 



Damaral. p. 357 (1872). 

 Stercorarius crepidatus, Dresser, B. Eur. viii, p. 471, pis. 611, 612, fig. 



2 (1876) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 695 (1884) ; Green, 



Ocean Bds. p. 84 (1887) ; 8aunders, Cat. B. M. xxv, p. 327 (1896) ; 



8helley, B. Afr. i, p. 165 (1896) ; Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 39 (1900). 



Description. Adult in non-breeding plumage. — In the sooty form 

 the plumage is brown throughout, darkest on the mantle, wings and 



