Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/149

Rh to almost black. These varieties appear to interbreed. The nest is a large pile of subangular stones, in the form of a truncated cone; and usually only one large white egg is laid. The nellie's gluttonous habits are well known to South Sea sailors; feeding ravenously on the remains of slaughtered seals or refuse, and filling itself to repletion till it is almost comatose, it is unable to rise from the ground till it disgorges the contents of its stomach. I have seen these filthy birds, feeding on the carcase of a seal, move off a few steps and disgorge what they had devoured and then begin to eat again.

Although a shag had previously been noted in the Antarctic Regions, the specific identity of these Antarctic shags remained somewhat uncertain until the Scottish Expedition finally settled the matter at the South Orkneys, in 1903, by finding it was the Blue-eyed shag (Phalacrocorax atriceps).

The Dominican gull (Larus dominicanus) is not very plentiful and does not appear to cross the circle. The Antarctic skua (Megalestris antarctica) and MacCormack's skua (M. maccormicki) are typical Antarctic birds: the former is very plentiful in the South Orkneys and other less southern Antarctic islands. The latter is more associated with higher southern latitudes. Antarctic skuas are very ferocious