AUSTRALIAN SKUA. 
Writing upon the “ Birds of the South Orkney Islands ” {Ihis^ 1906, 
pp. 180-182), under the title Megalestris antarcticus Eagle Clarke gives the 
following : — 
“About five hundred Antarctic Great Skuas spend the summer on 
Laurie I. . . . They were also observed nesting in similar situations on 
Saddle I. . . . Numerous specimens were obtained at the South Orkneys. 
These vary in colour, though mature and obtained at identical periods. 
Specimens captured in November, soon after their arrival on the nesting 
grounds, were of two types. One had the ground colour of both upper and 
under surfaces dark, being of a deep-blackish-brown, rather paler below, and 
showing comparatively few light markings on the mantle and scapulars, 
indeed, in some specimens the back is practically uniform. The other type 
is less numerously represented in the collections, and is much paler (drab) 
generally, except on the head ; while the feathers of the interscapulary region 
and under-surface have grey-buff margins. In these light-coloured birds 
the yellow streaks on the neck are much more numerous and pronounced 
than in the darker birds ; and they agree with the form described by Saunders 
{Brit. Mus, Cat., Birds, XXV., p. 320) as inhabiting the Falklands, except 
that they are not smaller in size than the ordinary dark form, their wings 
measuring 16.65 inches, as against 16 to 17 inches in the last mentioned.” 
At the same place was recorded : ^^Megalestris maccormicki (Saund.). 
Mr. Mossman informs me that a specimen of McCormick’s Skua was procured 
by the Argentine naturalists at Laurie I. on November 11th, 1904, and is in 
their collection of birds ; ” and the next year {Ihis, 1907, p. 348) was added : 
“ There are only two skins of this Skua in the collection brought home by the 
‘ Scotia.’ The first of these, an adult, was procured on March 10th, 1903, 
in 66° 40' S. and 40° 35' W. . . . The second example, an adult male, was shot 
alongside the ship on March 9th, 1904, in 74° S. and 22° W. . . . The Antarctic 
Skua {M. antarctica) did not occur with certainty beyond 62° 49' S. (38° 12' W.).” 
Upon writing to my friend, Mr. Eagle Clarke, with his usual unfailing 
courtesy, allowed me to examine the specimens above referred to. However, 
the November birds from the South Orkneys are aU dark-coloured without 
light markings, while those showing light feather-edges are January-February- 
March birds, and the light edges are obviously due to wearing. With^ them 
was forwarded a nestling in down, with the primaries and rectrices half-grown. 
I now put forward rather a novel classification, based mainly upon the 
study of the young plumages. I have noted that the plumage of the juvenile 
Falkland Islands bird approaches closely to that of the Northern Skua, and 
would class it as a subspecies of Gatharacta skua (Brunnich). The Scottish 
Antarctic Expedition brought back a specimen from Gough Island, and that 
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