FULMAR PETREL. 5 



that in the Fulmar there appear to be two distinct phases of 

 plumage, analogous, perhaps, to the light and the dark forms 

 observed in some of the Skuas. The ordinary adult bird has 

 a slate-grey mantle with white head, neck, and underparts ; 

 but a considerable number of individuals are of an entirely 

 ash-grey tint : the head, neck, and underparts being only a 

 shade lighter than the mantle. The latter plumage has 

 been generally assumed and even positively stated, to be that 

 of the immature bird, but such is not necessarily the case. 

 The Editor is indebted to Mr. E. Hargitt for two fledged 

 young birds taken on Myggenaes in the Fisroes, in the month 

 of August, 1876, with patches of down still adhering, and 

 their underparts are quite as white as those of the adult : 

 in fact, but for the gi-eater freshness of the unworn feathers 

 of the mantle, and the weaker bill, the young are like their 

 parents. Mr. L. Kumlien, naturalist to the American Polar 

 Expedition of 1877-78, states that in July he found a few of 

 these dark-coloured birds breeding on some small rocky 

 islands in Cumberland Sound. He adds that more dark birds 

 were seen in spring than in autumn, and that they predomi- 

 nate along the western shores of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay ; 

 but on Blue Mountain, Ovifak, Grreenland, where the Fulmars 

 breed in myriads to the very summit, about 2,000 feet high, 

 he saw but few dark birds, the fledged nestlings being white 

 on the underparts. Major Feilden was told by Mr. Fencker, 

 of Godhavn, that the dark birds were called by the natives 

 * Igarsok,' a word meaning ' cook,' because that functionary 

 on board the Danish trading-vessels usually dresses in a blue 

 jersey (Zool. 1878, p. 376) ; he also observed that the light- 

 breasted birds domineered over the dark ones ; and so far as 

 the Editor can judge from the limited series available, the 

 dark birds are on the average somewhat smaller. There are, 

 however, gradations in colour connecting the two extremes. 



In the Faeroe Islands the Fulmar made its first appear- 

 ance as a breeding species about the year 1839, and it has 

 since become common there. On the coast of Scandinavia it 

 is only observed between autumn and spring, except, perhaps, 

 to the north of the Arctic circle; and in the Baltic it is only 



