MCCORMICK'S SKUA GULL 



ground. Again, when the crew of an Antarctic 

 ship were engaged in blasting the sea-ice which 

 imprisoned it, a Skua flew off with one of the 

 detonators which had been left on the ice. I 

 think the detonator contained dynamite, but at 

 any rate I am told that there was a stampede 

 on the part of the men to get away from under 

 the bird as it flew overhead ! 



When, with two companions, I visited a skuary 

 at the back of the penguin rookery at Cape Royds, 

 the Skuas circled over us in a way I have described 

 above, but instead of swooping at our heads, some 

 of them repeatedly dropped their guano on to us as 

 they passed over, timing the process with such 

 surprising accuracy that I was hit once, and 

 Commander Campbell no less than three times. 

 The following year when at Cape Adare, I ex- 

 pected the same treatment from the Skuas there, but 

 curiously enough, these never did it. That one 

 skuary should have adopted such tactics and 

 another not, is a very curious thing, but it may 

 possibly be that the Cape Royds Skuas discovered 

 the trick during the stay of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 

 expedition, who had spent a year there quite 

 recently, and of the Discovery expedition which 

 spent two years at Hut Point, but a few 

 130 



