THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



tion to men when they were present. Several of the dogs 

 had learned to eat skua eggs, and the birds no doubt 

 knew of this. They have a harsh cry, and the shrill 

 chorus that went up when we had failed to find a nest 

 sounded very much like laughter. They are very quarrel- 

 some. When the rookery was strewn with fresh penguin 

 carcases, victims of some dogs which had broken loose, 

 the skuas would fight viciously over one, when there 

 were plenty for all. 



The skua has no true courage like the penguin. On 

 one occasion we snared a skua and dragged it by a string 

 into the midst of a small colony of penguins in order to 

 see how these ancient enemies would behave when brought 

 together. The penguins nearest to the skua pecked at it 

 without leaving their nests. It bit and scratched for a 

 very short while, and then gave it up and made no attempt 

 to defend itself, though it was not hurt. As it lay motion- 

 less some one called out that the poor thing was killed, 

 and we began to feel remorse for our cruel experiment, 

 but when thrown up into the air the skua did not come 

 down again. The bird's one virtue is cleanliness. It 

 enjoys its bath. Wherever there is a pool of fresh water 

 the skuas may be seen splashing with great gusto, and 

 they will bathe in a sea pool on occasion. 



Whales 



In summer whales were locally abundant, though 

 nowhere else in such numbers as we saw in the Bay of 

 Whales at the Great Barrier. As long as there was open 

 water small schools of finners and larger ones of killers 

 were seen daily in McMurdo Sound. Even when the 

 Sound was densely filled with pack, they came to the little 

 sea-pools. For a long time in winter no whales were 

 reported. 



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