FULMAR. 293 



the result of overcrowding in the ancient home. The food of 

 the Fulmar consists of fish, any floating oily refuse, cuttles, and, 

 near the nest, sorrel ; sometimes food is picked up as the bird 

 swoops, but often it settles on the water to feed. The young, 

 plunging the head into the parent's mouth, feeds on regurgitated 

 oil ; both old and young are so full of oil that they eject it 

 on the slightest provocation, squirting it, often at an intruder, 

 for three feet or more. When snared by the crag-climbing 

 native of St. Kilda the bird is seized by the neck and made 

 to disgorge its oil into a pouch, usually the stomach of a Gannet, 

 which is carried slung to the waist ; then the bird's neck is wrung 

 so as to avoid further loss. The oil is a beautiful clear amber 

 colour, and has a penetrating but not unpleasant smell ; I fail 

 to understand why it is often described as " musty." St. Kilda 

 reeks of the smell, as do skins and eggs of the bird ; blown 

 eggs, twenty years old, retain this persistent odour. The flesh 

 is oily ; I have tried young birds both boiled and roasted. 



At St. Kilda the birds are overcrowded on the ledges ; the 

 single egg is laid on the rock, in a rough scratching in soil, 

 or in an apology for a nest — a few bits of grass or thrift, or on 

 a slight lining of small flat stones. The white egg is rough 

 in texture, and measures on the average 2*9 by I'g inches ; 

 incubation begins about the middle of May. At the nest the 

 Fulmar has a low crooning note ; I have detected no sound from 

 the flying bird. Mr. Pike noticed that the egg was so deeply 

 embedded in the breast feathers of the sitting bird, that it was 

 often carried from the ledge by the startled parent and hurled 

 to destruction. The nestlings have greyish white down and 

 dark bills. 



The adult Fulmar has two phases, but the dark one, in which 

 the blue-grey extends to the under parts and head, is rare in 

 British colonies, though said to be common further north ; the 

 natives know this bird as the " Blue Fulmar." The lighter or 

 normal bird is white on the head, neck, and under parts, though 



