THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
Adult : subtus roseo-cinnamomeus ; speculo alarum albido, latissimo. 
a : madagascariensis Bp. Mus, Paris, a Berniero, ex Madagascar. Bostro elongate, 
robusto. 
b : chilensis Bp. Mus. Berol ex Am. m. Bostro vix breviore quam in europseo, 
potius graciliore quam robustiore. 
This covers all the names given to the forms of the Southern Great Skua. 
When I introduced the Neozelanic form as a new subspecies {Nov. 
Zool, Vol. XVIII., p. 212, 1912) I called it Gatharacta antarctica lonnhergi 
with the diagnosis — “ differs from C. a. antarctica in its much larger size: wing 
433 mm.” Upon reviewing the whole of the forms at the present time, I 
find that the Falkland Islands bird is much closer to the Northern Skua than 
it is to the New Zealand Skua. 
The Northern Skua has the upper-back broadly tipped with rufous which 
wears whitish or yellowish-white ; pale yellowish-white lanceolate neck- 
feathers in the fully adult ; the under surface is ruddy-tinged, wearing lighter 
but always so tinged ; in the adult the inner wing-coverts and axiUaries are 
uniformly brown while these parts in the young have rufous tips. 
The adult Falkland Islands bird has the upper surface brown, the feathers 
wearing rapidly to yellowish-white ; noticeable yeUow neck-streaks ; under 
surface brown, yellowish-white tipped when worn, but with no ruddy tinge, 
neither does this colour appear on the wing-coverts or axillaries in the adult. 
But the juvenile Falkland Islands bird is brown above, with rufous tips 
to the feathers of the upper-back, upper wing-coverts, and scapulars ; the 
under-surface throughout has the feathers rufous-tipped like the axillaries 
and the feathers of the inner side of the wings. 
The adult is easily differentiated from that of the Northern Skua by the 
lack of the ruddy tinge of the under surface, but more particularly by the 
shorter, much stouter bill ; but these seem to me to be only worthy of 
subspecific distinction. 
We do not yet seem to know the breeding-place of the Chilian bird. It 
is a splendid form in which the ruddy coloration of the Northern Skua has 
become intensified into a beautiful cinnamon-red while the axiUaries have 
broad rufous tips and the inner wing is deep cinnamon throughout. The bird 
which Saunders considered to be the youngest is the most deeply coloured. 
This form would appear to be the one in which the characters of the 
juvenile have persisted and become fixed in the adult and therefore the least 
specialised, and as we do not know where it breeds we must for the time 
withhold the speculation which is thus enticed. 
A disturbing factor is introduced into the forms and distribution of these 
Southern Skuas, when we come to consider those brought home by the recent 
Antarctic exploring expeditions. 
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