THE TUBE-NOSES 185 



to be due not to its famous oil-spitting ability but to the fact that it is 

 not heavily preyed upon by any animals save man. H. Kritzler (1948) 

 says "the fulmar brain probably contains no innate mechanism whereby 

 its owner is apt to respond distrustfully with regard to human beings 

 . . . when food is available they are incapable of associating the manner 

 in which it is presented — with possible hazard to themselves." Certainly 

 fulmars are easily caught in a hand-net when attracted to the side of 

 a trawler by fish offal; their desire for food overcomes the little fear 

 they have of man. But it must be noted that fishermen, in general, 

 seldom molest the fulmar at sea, regarding it superstitiously: there is 

 a popular belief that each "molly" (fulmar) is the reincarnation of a 

 dead seaman who formerly fished in that region. So man is not 

 normally a predator taking adult fulmars; he collects principally the 

 fledgelings (in Greenland; and formerly in Iceland, the Faeroes and 

 St. Kilda). As to other large enemies, the arctic fox may kill a few 

 young fulmars ; though no other predator is important. Quite a number 

 of casual predators have been listed by Fisher (1952). The great skua 

 cannot drive the fulmar off its nest, although gulls (glaucous especially) 

 will take a fulmar's Ggg or small chick if this is left unprotected ; but, 

 as we have shown, except when disturbed by man, one or other of 

 the adults always remains with the egg. AVhen approached by an 

 enemy, the adult fulmar instinctively spits forth oil for a distance of 

 two or three feet, and although deliberate aim is unlikely, the effect 

 is much the same since the fulmar ejects as it faces the intruder. The 

 young fulmar is capable of spitting oil while still in the egg — through 

 the pipped shell; and it spits at its parents instinctively for a few days 

 after hatching, until it has recognised them as its friends. Birds, no 

 less than humans, dislike being plastered with this extremely foul- 

 smelling oil.* 



Some of the larger shearwaters exhibit the same fearlessness. 

 The powerful North Atlantic shearwater {Puffinus diomedea borealis) is less 

 nocturnal and less of a burrower than the smallest shearwaters, 

 especially where it is not molested by man. On the Great Salvage 

 Islands, where they are carefully protected so that the young ones can be 

 collected for food when deserted by their parents, these shearwaters 

 breed in almost any large crevice; both in large dark caves and in 



*Really an excretion as well as a secretion, from the alimentary system, of excess 

 fat and Vitamin A. All tubenoses vomit, but the fulmar seems to have been most 

 successful in turning the habit to defensive purposes, by throwing the oil towards 

 the intruder. 



