Vol. XXIV.-l 
1924 J 
Camera Craft 
147 
Camera Craft 
The Arctic Skua. — While on a holiday trip recently I availed 
myself of the opportunity to study the Arctic Skua (Stercorarius 
parasiticus) from the deck of s.s. Macquarie, a small coastal 
steamer travelling between Sydney and Port Macquarie, a dis¬ 
tance of about 280 miles north. The photograph herewith 
depicts the two projecting central tail feathers, also the mottled 
and barred brown and white plumage; one of the two phases of 
this dimorphic bird. Although rather heavy in build and un¬ 
gainly in flight, when compared with other sea birds, the Arctic 
Skua is not without that beauty of form which is characteristic 
to all birds whose food is secured wholly or partly from the sea. 
The Arctic Skua is found all along the eastern coast of Aus¬ 
tralia, but breeds in Siberia, hence it will be seen that it is a 
strong flier and a great traveller. Its food consists mainly of 
fish, also of refuse thrown overboard from the many steamers 
which travel up and down the coast; the fish are secured mainly 
by harassing other birds until they disgorge their catch. —Keith 
A. Hindwood, R.A.O.U., Willoughby, N.S.W. 
C orrespondence 
WHITE’S JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO NEW SOUTH 
WALES. 
To the Editors of The Emu. 
Sirs,—I am much interested to learn from the letters of 
Messrs. Mathews and Waite, published in the last number of 
The Emu, that I was correct in my surmise that the editor of the 
above-named work was Thomas Wilson, and that various author¬ 
ities, including Swainson, Sherborn and Mr. Waite, had pre¬ 
viously concluded that Shaw was the author of the scientific 
names and descriptions given therein. I can only state that my 
conclusions were arrived at without knowledge of these facts, 
and I regret the apparent lack of caution in the abstract which 
Mr. Waite quotes, in which I said that the scientific names had 
always been quoted as of White. It is a difficult task to com¬ 
press an account of a paper, even a brief one, into fifty words, 
and it leaves no room for qualifying phrases such as “as far as 
the author is aware/' 
In common with many other students of Australian birds, I 
owe much of my knowledge of the early literature of the subject 
to Mr. Mathews' great work, and since reading his letter I have 
looked up his references to White's Journal to see if he had 
ever stated, or even hinted there, that Shaw and not White was 
probably the author of the names. I cannot find anything of 
