64 EDWARD A. WILSON. 
We obtained six examples of Megalestris antarctica from the Macquarie Islands, 
but unfortunately none from the Aucklands, where the birds appeared to be even 
darker and larger than they were in the Macquarie Islands. We found it nesting in 
the latter islands on November 22, 1901. Each nest contained two eggs laid merely 
on the ground, with rarely a few bents lining a shallow depression. The birds not only 
threatened to attack those who interfered with them, but also occasionally attempted to 
draw them away by feigning an inability to fly. They live here as skuas do elsewhere, 
largely by harassing other birds till they disgorge. We saw one dipping at a Whale- 
bird (Prion). Fear was a thing apparently unknown to them, for in the open ocean we 
watched them chasing even the largest albatrosses, and no sooner did the sailing flight 
of the Skua change for its bee-line stoop than the albatross would immediately drop to 
the water, there to remain until either its tormentor was gone, or the coveted food 
in its stomach had passed beyond recall. 
On the Macquarie Islands the Skuas patrolled the penguins’ rookeries with great 
persistence, and no doubt took a fair share of the eggs and young. The most 
northerly point in open ocean at which we observed Megalestris antarctica was 
37° 33' §., 6° 9’ E. on Sept. 29, 1901, in the South Atlantic ocean. The most 
southerly point at which we saw the bird was 56° S., 176° E. on March 11, 
1904, and we were then immensely struck by the obvious difference between it 
and Maccormick’s Skua to which we had grown so accustomed during the preceding 
two years. Instead of the smaller, pale or parti-coloured bird, we saw a much 
larger, darker, and stronger bird of one uniform brown all over, chasing albatrosses. 
Undoubtedly it was most distinct, for we had seen nothing like it amongst 
thousands of Maccormick’s species farther south, and the distinction appears to be 
well confirmed by a comparison of their young. 
MEGALESTRIS MACCORMICKI. 
MeCormick’s Skua. 
(Plates XII, XIII.) 
Stercorarius maccormicki, Saunders, Bull. B.O.C. III. (1893), p. 12. 
Megalestris maccormicki, Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXV. (1896), p. 321, pl. I. ; Sharpe, Rep. ‘South. 
Cross’ (1902), p. 166, tbigue citata; Hagle Clarke, Birds of S. Orkney Ids., Ibis, Jan. 1906, p. 182. 
List or MatEeRiaL IN THE ‘ Discovery’s’ COLLECTION. 
No. 66, 9, ad.sk. Jan. 31,1902. Great Ice Barrier. 
» 67, 6, ad. sk. Jan. 31, 1902. 5 
» 68, g,ad.sk. Feb. 24,1904. Cape Adare. Weathered and white. (Fig. 5, Pl. XII.). 
» 69, 9,ad. sk. Feb. 24, 1904. . 
» 70, g,ad.sk. Jan. 31,1902. Great Ice Barrier. Young bird. (Fig. 4, Pl. XIL.). 
» 71, 6,ad.sk. Feb. 2,1903. McMurdo Sound. 
» 72, §,Imm.sk. Feb. 24,1904. Cape Adare. Just able to fly. (Fig. 3, Pl. XIT.). 
» 78, 9,ad.sk. Mar., 1903. McMurdo Sound. 
