65 
yards and alighted again on the beach, repeating the operation again and again till the coach reached 
the Paikakariki, a distance of some twenty miles. Any bird of ordinary intelligence would have made 
a circuit and got behind the pursuing coach. But the Skua ashore was evidently out of his latitude ; 
and this was made more apparent by the manner in which the Sea-Gulls (of both species), his hereditary 
victims at sea, pursued him in the air and buffeted him. As is well known, this bird usually subsists 
by plunder, pursuing the Gulls and compelling them to disgorge their food. Here, however, the 
conditions were changed, as I myself had an opportunity of observing from the box-seat. The Skua 
had alighted in a shallow beach-stream and was ducking its body in the water when a fine old Hawk 
{Circus (jouldi), with hoary white plumage, suddenly appeared from the sand-hills and swooped down 
upon the intruder. The Skua, without making any show of resistance, instantly disgorged from its 
crop the entire body of a Diving Petrel {Pelecanoides urmatrix). The Hawk, balancing himself for a 
moment with outspread tail, dropped his long talons into the stream and clutched up his prey without 
wetting a feather of his plumage, and then disappeared among the sand-hills, while the terrified Skua 
hurried off, only to be pursued again by the clamorous Sea-Gulls. Thus we have examples of 
‘ retributive justice ’ even among birds.” 
On the range of the three allied species of this larger form of Skua, Mr. Saunders writes : 
“ The northern species, S. catarrhactes, whose breeding-range stretches from the coast of Norway, 
the Faroes, and Iceland, away through the Nearctic region and the Pacific, appears to be nowhere 
numerically abundant, and is fast becoming exterminated in Europe It has occurred in 
California ; but descending that coast, we find no trace of a large Skua until we enter the fish-abound- 
ing, and therefore Gull-frequented, waters of Humboldt’s Current, which cools the coasts of Chili 
and Peru throughout a width of about 300 miles, and sweeps outwards to diminish the natural heat 
of the equatorial Galapagos Islands. In these productive waters is found a large Skua, S. cMlensis, 
separable from the northern 8. catarrhactes by its brighter and more chestnut underparts and 
axillaries — difierences which are constant, although it is true that they are merely those of colour. 
Its bill is perhaps a trifle more slender than that of the northern bird, a point which should be borne 
in mind, because on passing through the Straits of Magellan, where this species appears to stop, we 
come at once to another large Skua, 8. antarcticus, which, although in such close geographical 
proximity to 8. chilensis, yet differs far more from it than 8. chilensis does from 8. catarrhactes'. 
The Antarctic Skua ranges from the Falkland Islands down to the edge of the pack-ice, the shores of 
New Zealand, and up to Norfolk Island, and thence by way of the chain of Kerguelen Island, St. 
Paul’s Island, the Crozets, &c., it reaches the Cape of Good Hope and, as a straggler, Madagascar. 
From the Cape it works round by Tristan d’Acunha and the South Atlantic islands, till the chain is 
completed at the Falklands again. 8. antarcticus is a uniformly dusky bird, with stronger and shorter 
bill than either of its near relatives.” (Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. vol. xiv. pp. 392, 393.) 
The flight of this bird is heavy, and performed by slow regular flappings of the wings, with the 
shoulders much arched. It possesses, however, the faculty of turning quickly in the air, as I observed 
when the Gulls were in pursuit. On the wing the white mark across the primaries is very conspicuous, 
but it is not sufficiently apparent to distinguish the bird when the body is at rest. 
In the Otago Museum there are two eggs of this Skua, which differ appreciably. Although of 
similar size, one is narrower or more elliptical than the other, measuring 3T inches in length by 2 in 
breadth ; of a pale, creamy-brown colour, blotched all over the surface, and pretty equally, with 
blackish and purplish brown. On one side these blotches are confluent, and they are generally darker 
towards the middle circumference. This specimen was collected at Campbell Island. The other, 
which came from Macquarie Island, is more ovoid, measuring 3 inches by 2 ’2, and is of a dull olive- 
brown sparingly blotched with dark brown, the intervening spaces being marked with small, irregular 
spots of the same colour, more or less distinct. 
VOL. II. 
K 
