MCCORMICK'S SKUA GULL 



disconcerting manner. In order to keep them at a 

 distance without having to keep a constant look- 

 out, when I was in the neighbourhood of their 

 nest, I used to walk about holding a ski-stick or 

 the handle of my ice-axe straight above me, and 

 they would swoop at the top of this instead of my 

 head, which was infinitely preferable. One day 

 when a high wind was blowing on top of Cape 

 Adare, I had my ice-axe knocked clean out of my 

 hand by one of the Skuas flying straight into the 

 handle, the heavy blow seeming to affect the bird 

 but slightly. 



There was a " skuary " on the screes, close to a 

 thickly populated part of the rookery, but the 

 majority of these birds made their nests right at 

 the top of Cape Adare, from which point of 

 vantage they surveyed the entire rookery, and a very 

 sharp look-out they kept too, for no sooner did 

 we start to flense a seal than a flock of them 

 descended to gobble at the lumps of blubber as we 

 threw them on the ground. In this occupation 

 they exhibited the greatest jealousy, and when 

 there was a hundred times as much blubber on the 

 ground as all the skuas possibly could have eaten, 

 they continually tried to drive each other away. 

 When fighting they rarely stayed on the ground, 



