SOUTH POLAR SKUA. 
at the tibio-metatarsal joint. Here, in the young just about to take the 
wing, there is still a bright blue patch of skin, but by March the legs and 
feet are black all over. The down has by this time been exchanged for a 
uniformly dark and soft mouse-grey plumage, which gradually becomes more 
brown by the removal, apparently, of the soft loose ends of the barbs by 
wear and tear. The bird, now in its first year’s plumage, has no trace what¬ 
ever of the golden straw-coloured band upon the neck ; this begins to appear 
at about the age of ten or eleven months. 
The Skua’s real harvest begins as soon as the Adelie Penguin lays its 
eggs. They even rob their own land. When the Adelie Penguins have 
hatched their eggs the Skua has least trouble in procuring food. Hanging 
round the rookery, with the unmistakable look of a thief, the Skua will run 
up to a chicken of the Adelie Penguin, almost as big as himself, drag it away 
and gradually worry it to death. The Penguin chick pipes his loudest, but 
the old birds standing round take very little notice. The adults weigh about 
one pound each. 
The eggs of C. lonnbergi from Macquarie 
Islands measure .. 75-SI by 50-54 mm. 
C. maccormicki from McMurdo 
Sound .. .. .. 66-73 by 49-51 mm. 
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