48 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 61, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



I have often seen a fulmar sitting on the water by the side of a jelly 

 fish, part of which it had eaten, so filled that it could scarcely move out 

 of the way of the boat. Specimens shot while these Medusae are common 

 I have always found with the stomach filled with these alone, and a half 

 pint of the slimy mass will often run from their mouths when lifted from 

 the water by their feet. 



I think the fulmars enjoy a monopoly of this diet, for I have never 

 seen other species eating it, nor will gulls, nor any sea birds that I have 

 observed, pay any attention to a fulmar that is eating a jelly fish though 

 they all claim their share if the food is of a kind that they care for. 



The abundance of the fulmars off this coast would seem to have some 

 relation to the abundance of Medusae, since the winter of 1893-94 was 

 noted for the almost if not entire absence of fulmars as well as jelly fish 

 until some time in late February or March, when both jelly fish and fulmars 

 appeared in small numbers. 



This is quoted at some length because it reveals an important 

 habit of the fulmar, which also was noted among the Aleutians, 

 where a large brown jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, often proved an 

 attraction to fulmars. 



Mortality Factors 



Aside from the danger from foxes on accessible nesting sites, 

 the only other natural enemy on which we have information is 

 the northern bald eagle. The fulmar appears to furnish an 

 important item in the eagle's diet throughout the Aleutian Islands 

 as a whole, though murres and other species may dominate the 

 diet of individual eagle pairs. The drain on the fulmar population 

 by eagles could not be significant, in view of the great variety 

 of birds on which the eagle preys. More important are man's 

 activities, such as the raising of blue foxes. Dead fulmars are 

 found on beaches, but, at present, it is hard to estimate the 

 results of storms or disease. At any rate, we have several large 

 flourishing colonies of fulmars, and those that have been depleted 

 should increase again owing to the protection now being given. 



Family HYDROBATIDAE 

 Oceanodroma furcata: Fork-tailed Petrel 



Oceanodroma furcata furcata 



Attu \A-la-ma-g6 Ke-kech 



Atka :Ki-ki-tich-noch 



Russian, Commander Islands: Sturmofka (Stejneger) The Atka name is 

 applied to both this petrel and to Leach's petrel. 



In 1939, Grinnell and Test separated the forked-tailed petrel 

 into two races, designating the southern form O.f. plumbea, 

 whose range is said to extend northward to "the Alexander 



