THE SKUA GULL. 
177 
Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, as in the middle of the 
vast Atlantic, these black and piratical birds, like weathered 
mariners, are seen to levy their contributions upon the 
inhabitants of the deep, soaring on high above the mountain 
wave, and flying out in easy circling tours like so many 
boding ravens, occasionally reconnoitring at a distance the 
sailing vessel that accidentally ventures across their wide 
and desolate domain. 
In the southern hemisphere, bold and predaceous by 
privation, the Skua Jager is frequently seen to attack the 
gigantic albatross, beating it with violence while on the 
wing, and who generally escapes from the daring freebooter 
alone by settling down into the water. Still the Jager 
himself succumbs to the rage and violence of the elements, 
and at the approach, or during the continuance of the 
tempest, he condescends to seek out the shelter of the bay 
or the neighbouring coast. They are also not unfrequently 
associated with the common tern, and have a somewhat 
similar cry. 
The Skua, like the larger Gulls, commonly feeds on fish 
and mollusca, as well as on carrion and cetaceous animals, 
and seeking out the nests of other marine birds, he robs 
them frequently of their eggs. They nest themselves in the 
remote and cold regions, associating in large bands, on the 
summits of mountains, or in the herbage and heath con- 
tiguous to the coast. They lay three or four very pointed 
olivaceous eggs, sprinkled with large brown spots. 
