40 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The "gliipisch" is one of the commonest summer visitors to the islands, nnd 

 breeds in enormous numbers in suitalile places, that is to say, in high and steep 

 rocliy bluffs and promontories boldly rising out of the sea 300 to 800 feet 

 high, and I have spent hours under their rookeries listening to their whinnying 

 voice and watching their high and elegant flight in sailing out and in and 

 around the cracked rocks like bees at an immense beehive. I have mentioned 

 above that nearly all the birds belonged to the dark phase, and that only 

 a very small percentage of white birds breed, apart from the dark ones, on 

 Copper Island. 



Eggs. — I can not find anything distinctive in the eggs of this sub- 

 species, which are in every particular indistinguishable from those 

 of the Atlantic fulmar. 



The measurements of 19 eggs, in various collections, average 72.7 

 by 50 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 77.5 

 by 49.5, 72 by 53, 68 by 51.5, and 77.5 by 48 millimeters. 



Plumages. — I have never seen the downy young of this fulmar and 

 can not find any description of it in print, but probably it is similar 

 to that of the Atlantic subspecies. The sequence of plumages to 

 maturity and the seasonal molts are also probably the same. 



Food. — Mr, A. W. Anthony (1895) gives a very good account 

 of the feeding habits of tlie fulmars on the California coast, which 

 I quote as follows: 



Although mention has been made of their following fishing sloops, fish form 

 a very small part of their diet while on this coast. In fact, it is the exception, 

 I have never found small fish in the stomachs of those I have taken, nor 

 have I seen them catch fish for themselves, though I have no doubt regarding 

 their ability to do so should they fall in with a school of small herring or 

 anchovies, and from their associating with the flocks of shearwaters I infer 

 that they derive a part of their food from such schools of small fry when 

 they are common. There is, however, a large jelly fish (Medusa?) that is 

 usually abundant along this coast during the time of the fulmars' sojourn, 

 and these are never disregarded by the ever hungry birds. I have often seen 

 ;a f«hnar sitting on the water by the side of a jelly fish, part of whiffli it 

 lirad eaten, so filled that it would 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 alon«, aiad half a 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 liave never seen 

 ■ other species -eating it, nor -will gitUs, nor any of the sea birds thart I havie 

 .observed, pay any attention to a fulmar that is eating a jelly fishrthough they rtll 

 .claim their share if the food is of a kind th (it they care for. 



The abundance, of the fulmars off tliis coiist would seem to have some rela- 

 tion t0:the abundance of the Medusae, since the winter of 1S9.S-94 was noted 

 for the:almost if not entire absence of fulmars as well as jelly fish until some 

 itime in late February or March, when both jelly fish and fulmars appeared ;in 

 .small numbers. 



I have occasionally seen fulmars busily engaged in picking small Crus- 

 tacea (?) from the kelp, but as a rule they prefer to obtain their food in open 

 water where they are much oftener seen than along the immense beds of kelp 

 (MacrocysUs pyrifera) and "bull kelp" iNoreevsHs lutkcim) tliat fringe the 



