296 FURC ULA —FURZE-CHA T 



shallow nest is made in the turf and lined with a little dried grass. 

 Many of its breeding-places are a most valuable property to those 

 who live near them and take the eggs and young, which, from the 

 nature of the locality, are only to be had at a hazardous risk of 

 life. In St. Kilda it is said that from 18,000 to 20,000 young are 

 killed in one week of August, the only time when, by the custom 

 of the community, they are allowed to be taken. These, after the 

 oil is extracted from them, serve the islanders with food for the 

 winter. This oil, says Mr. Gray, having been chemically examined 

 by Mr. E. C. C. Stanford, was found to be a fish-oil and to possess 

 nearly all the qualities of that obtained from the liver of the cod, 

 with a lighter specific gravity. It, however, has an extremely 

 strong scent, which is said by some who have visited St. Kilda to 

 pervade every thing and person on the island, and is certainly 

 retained by an egg or skin of the bird for many years. Whenever 

 a live example is seized in the hand it ejects a considerable 

 quantity of this oil from its mouth. Though abounding in certain 

 seasons on the banks of Newfoundland, where, according to 

 Montagu {Suppl. Orn. Diet), it was called by the fishermen "John 

 Down," it seems to have no breeding-place on the east coast of 

 America, but it has several, which are thronged, on either side of 

 Baffin's Bay. The Fulmar is said by Mr. Darwin (Origin of Species, 

 ed. 4, p. 78) to be the most numerous bird in the world ; but on 

 whose authority the statement is made does not appear, and to 

 render it probable we should have to unite specifically with the 

 Atlantic bird, not only its Pacific representative, F. pacificus, which 

 some ornithologists deem distinct, but also that which replaces it 

 in the Antarctic seas and is considered by most authorities to be a 

 perfectly good species, F. glacialioides. The differences between 

 them are, however, exceedingly slight, and for Mr. Darwin's 

 purpose on this particular occasion it matters little how they are 

 regarded. It is a more interesting question whether the statement 

 is anyhow true, but one that can hardly be decided yet. 



FURCULA, a name for the two Clavicles when coalescent, as 

 generally is the case among Birds ; in English commonly known 

 as the Merrythought or Wishbone.^ Some very pecvdiar forms of 

 the Furculaare presented in certain species of Crane, Guinea-fowl, 

 and Swan, chiefly adaptations to convolutions taken by the Trachea, 

 as well as in the Frigate-bird, Hoactzin, and some others. 



FURZE-CHAT, a name often given to the Stone-CHAT. 



^ Cotgrave, in his BictioJiary (1660), explains the former name as " the forked 

 craw-bone of a bird which we use in sport to put on our noses." The latter comes 

 from the practice of two persons, mostly children, each holding one prong of the 

 furcula and expressing a wish before breaking it asunder. The one who carries 

 off the greater portion expects the fulfilment of his or her wish. 



