FULMAR 291 



as regards names it would be hard to find." It is not within the 

 province of the present book to discuss such controversial matter, 

 especially as the various geographical races of P. obsctirtis 

 (Gmel.) or P, assiinilis Gould, are complicated. Two forms 

 have occurred in Britain. The one which breeds in Madeira 

 and some other eastern Atlantic islands, is called by the 

 B.O.U. Committee, P. obscuriis baroli Bonap., and by Dr. 

 Hartert and his school, P. assimilis godinaiii Allen. It has 

 occurred on about eight occasions, in April and May, and 

 between October and December. Most of the occurrences 

 have been in autumn on the south coast, but the first obtained 

 was in Ireland in May, and a bird was taken in Suffolk in April, 

 The Cape Verde form, P. a. boydi Math., has been twice recorded 

 from the south coast, in December and January. 



The upper parts of the Madeira bird are brownish black, 

 with a bluer tinge than in the brown Cape Verde form. The 

 under parts, including the tail-coverts, are white in the former, 

 but in the latter the longer under tail-coverts are dusky, almost 

 black. There are other minor, and perhaps more variable, 

 differences. The bill is slate, the legs are blue-black, and 

 the irides dark brown. Length, 11 ins. Wing, 7*5 ins. Tarsus, 

 1*4 ins. 



Fulmar. FuDnarus glacialis (Linn.). 



Until 1878 the only known British breeding place of the 

 Fulmar (Plate 126) was St. Kilda ; then a colony was established 

 on Foula, and now the bird nests in large and growing colonies 

 on many of the Orkney and Shetland islands, on North Rona, 

 the Lewis and others of the Outer Hebrides, on the Sutherland 

 and Caithness coasts, and in two or more places in Ireland. 

 In June, 1919, my friend Mr. G. W. Temperley saw two at 

 Speeton, Yorkshire, where they had been noticed for some 

 weeks. The increase in the last ten years has been exlra- 



