The Bofl and dense plumage of the (Julls renders them incapable of any great diving powers, 

 although it (rives them a graceful carriage when swimming, and therefore these l>ir<ls seldom dive, always 

 being able to secure their prey on the surface of the water. Like the Terns, the (lulls are true 

 cosmopolites, inhabiting the shores and islands of every /one, and most oi the genera have a wide range. 



GENUS STERCORARIUS ( Brissan ). 



rilllls i- the only representative of the parasitic Gulls inhabiting Australian seas: in the higher latitudes 

 I of the northern hemisphere they are very numerous. 



ST ERCO R A III US CAT A RE H A CT ES. 



GREAT SKUA. Genus: Stercorarius. 



I71IERCE, powerful, and of a tyrannous and rapacious disposition, the Great Skua contests with the 

 Albatros the supremacy of the ocean, robbing and slaying without mercy its weaker brethren, and 

 devouring their bodies when unable to obtain fish or eergfs. 



o on 



As the voyager to Australia nears the higher latitudes the ship is sure to be visited by wandering 

 individuals or pairs of this species generally the former. The slow, heavy flight and bulky body of the 

 bird as it approaches the vessel at once arouses attention : apparently attracted more from inquisitiveness 

 than from a desire to obtain food, the Skua will follow and hover about the ship for perhaps half an 

 hour, and although quickly pouncing upon and securing any morsel of edible; refuse cast overboard when 

 such has drifted a considerable distance astern, the bird will but rarely seize a bait attached to a line 

 towing in the ship's wake. After sufficiently satisfying its curiosity by examining the ship and its human 

 tenants as closely as excessive caution will permit, the solitary wanderer again wings its way over the 

 ocean until lost to view. 



The most frequented haunts of the species in Australian seas are the southern coasts of Tasmania, 

 and Xew Zealand, where great numbers may be seen ; but it particularly favours the higher and colder 

 latitudes about the Auckland and Campbell Islands, on which the breeding grounds of so many of the 

 other ocean haunting birds are situated, and where the predatory instincts of the Skua have the fullest 

 -cope in devouring the eggs and young birds of the other species. 



A favoured breeding place- is in the cheerless solitudes of Kerguelen's Land, and Mr. Eaton gives 

 an interesting account of a visit to the nursery in that inhospitable island. As the visitors approached the 

 females sitting on their nests, the male birds swooped towards them with such menacing aspect and fierce 

 impetuosity that the seamen who accompanied Mr. Eaton had to defend themselves by striking the birds 

 down with sticks ; sometimes a Skua would fly straight at a seaman's face, rising only just in time to 

 clear his head, and uttering short despairing cries, as if hopeless of preventing the intruder from reaching 

 the nest. On some occasions, when the birds seemed to fancy that they had succeeded in intimidating 

 the enemy from despoiling their nests, they would stand face to face upon the ground, with wings extended 

 vertically so as almost to meet above their backs, whilst two or three would chant a paean consisting of 

 a dozen notes or so. delivered in hoarse croaking tones ; and there was every indication that during the 

 period of incubation the Skua is courageous to an alarming degree, particularly if young birds were in 

 the nest. 



