436 FULMARUS GLACIALIS. 



by the hand. The sea immediately about the ship's stern is 

 sometimes so completely covorcd with them, that a stone 

 can scarcely be thrown overboard without striking one of 

 them. When anything is thus cast among them, those 

 nearest the spot where it falls take the alarm, and these 

 exciting some fear in others more remote, sometimes put a 

 thousand of them in motion ; but as in rising into the air 

 they assist their wings for the first few yards by striking the 

 •water with their feet, there is produced by such a number of 

 them a loud and most singular splashing. It is highly 

 amusing to observe the voracity with which they seize the 

 pieces of fat that fall in their way ; the size and quantity of 

 the pieces they take at a meal ; the curious chuckling noise 

 which, in their anxiety for despatch, they always make ; 

 and the jealousy with which they view, and the boldness 

 with which they attack, any of their species that are engaged 

 in devouring the finest morsels. They frequently glut them- 

 selves so completely that they are unable to fly ; in Avhich 

 case, when they are not relieved by a quantity being dis- 

 gorged, they endeavour to get on the nearest piece of ice, 

 where they rest until the advancement of digestion restores 

 their wonted powers. Then, if opportunity admit, they 

 return with the same gust to the banquet as before ; and 

 though nvimbers of the species may be killed, and allowed 

 to float about among them, they appear unconscious of 

 danger to themselves. When carrion is scarce, the Fulmars 

 follow the living whale ; and sometimes, by their peculiar 

 motions, when hovering at the surface of the water, point 

 out to the fisher the position of the animal of which he is in 

 pursuit. They cannot make much impression on the dead 

 whale, until some more powerful animal tears away the skin ; 

 the epidermis and rete mucosum they entirely remove, but the 

 true skin is too tough for them to make way through it." 



Young. — According to M. Temminck, " the young of the 

 year have all the parts of the body of a pale grey, shaded with 

 brown ; the feathers of the back and wings terminated by 

 deeper brown; the quills and tail-feathers are of the same 

 brownish-grey tint ; before the eyes is an angular spot of a 

 black colour ; the bill and feet yellowish-grey." 



