SOUTH POLAR SKUA. 
Legs, toes and webs pale bluish-grey in the young when just hatched, gradually blackening 
from the extremities upwards, until, -when the bird is full-fledged, the feet and legs 
are black except for a patch of bright blue just above the tibio-metatarsal joint. In the adult, 
wholly black. Claws black at all ages. 
Nest. None made, just a shallow depression in the gravel. 
Eggs. Clutch two normally, one sometimes; ground-colour greenish, buff or stone, marked, 
sometimes all over, but never heavily, with spots and blotches of a brown or brownish- 
black colour and underlining ones of light grey or light brown to purplish-grey. 66 to 
73 mm. by 49-51 mm. 
Incubation-period. Four weeks. 
Breeding-season. December, January. 
From Dr. E. A. Wilson I take the following :— 
In the South Victoria Land quadrant of the Antarctic area the occurrence 
of McCormick’s Skua is limited to the ice. Nor does it in any other part of the 
Antarctic seem to wander into more temperate regions, its place being 
taken in the sub-Antarctic area by the more robust form [Gatharacta lonnbergi ]. 
Having accustomed ourselves to the appearance of the latter, which was 
with us day by day on our outward voyage for months, we had no difficulty 
in at once recognising the smaller and paler form of the ice-pack as a dis¬ 
tinct species. From January 5th, when we met with it, onwards throughout 
the summer months, we had it always with us. Hardly a day passed in the 
summer but McCormick’s Skua was noted, though not always in excessive 
numbers, except when we neared an Adelie Penguins’ rookery. Then the 
Skua would always become abmidant, and the bloody remains of Penguin 
chickens would be sufficient testimony to the nature of its needs. 
The variety of colouring in this Skua was very noticeable at Cape Adare. 
The colour of the head, neck and breast varies from a very light buff, or 
almost white, to a dark brown. Everywhere on the higher slopes the bird 
was nesting, and young of all stages, as well as incubated eggs, were taken 
on January 9th. 
We noticed it sleeping as it squatted on the ice-floes, from 2 a.m. till 7 in 
the morning, and a trait in the bird which we found to be very characteristic 
was the habit of settling, the one just ahead of its mate, both with out¬ 
stretched wings and head well up, vociferating with loud and rapidly 
repeated cries before closing up the wings. Their habits are in every way 
like those of other Skuas, and having no other Gulls to attack, as their 
northern relatives, they content themselves by attacking one another or 
the smaller Petrels on the wing till the weaker disgorges what he has eaten. 
Again in Granite Harbour, on the coast of McMurdo Sound, we found 
them, nesting, with young and even eggs, though so late as January 20th. 
On February 9th along the Barrier they still had nestlings in down. 
Ill 
