154 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY 



Range in Great Britain. — The Fulmar breeds in some of the 



islands of the Hebrides, one notable breeding-place being 

 S. Kilda. It also nests on Foula, in the Shetlands. Other- 

 wise the species is a winter visitor to Britain. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The present species is 

 found in the North Atlantic from Baffin Bay and Greenland 

 to Iceland, Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, and Franz- Josef 

 Land. In winter it comes south and occurs in America off 

 the New England coast, and, according to Mr. Saunders, dt)wn 

 to about Lat. 43 '^ in European waters. 



Habits. — Mr. A. H. Cocks has given the following account 

 of the Fulmar on the west coast of Spitsbergen : — 



"At Magdalena Bay we found a ' White- Whaler ' lying, 

 with skins of this cetacean floating in the sea all round her, 

 preparatory to being stowed away in her hold. Swarms of 

 Fulmars were swimming close round the vessel's sides, 

 elbowing and jostling each other, gorging on the scraps of 

 blubber they obtained from the skins, and as tame as domestic 

 poultry. We found we could catch them with a hook and line, 

 baiting with a small scrap of 'spek,' literally almost as fast as 

 we could haul them on board. 



" On shooting some Ivory Gulls at this place, which 

 dropped into the water, it was only by keeping up an unre- 

 mitting cannonade of stones that I could keep the Fulmars 

 off them until I could secure my specimens. They were 

 common as far north as we went, and were among the few 

 species of birds observed among the ice we met with about 

 the latitude of Bear Island on our way south (4th of August). 

 There were still a few every now and then after we were in 

 sight of the Norwegian coast on the 6th, and the last I saw 

 of this species was near the head of Lyngen Fjord (east of 

 Tromso), on the 25th of August. To the collector, the Fulmar 

 Petrel is by far the most troublesome bird I have yet made 

 the acquaintance of, from its habit, when shot, of ejecting an 

 oily fluid from its mouth, which stains the plumage. I selected 

 my specimens, and then took the utmost care in handling 

 them, but one is never safe until the skin has been actually 

 removed." 



