THE BIRDS OF SPITSBERGEN. 257 
form was never to be seen. A. Trevor Battye records 
the only known specimen of the dark form, from Bell 
Sound. It is now in the National Collection. See Ibis, 
October 1897, p. 596. 
*2'7. STERCORARIUS PARASITICUS (Linn.).— Longtailed or 
Buffon’s Skua, ’ 
Not so common as the preceding species, though my 
seeing so few was probably an accident. I saw one pair 
twice on two different days, four or five miles up Sassendal. 
At the upper end of Advent Bay, where the river runs in, 
some five or six were to be seen. This bird is even tamer 
than the Arctic Skua, which is by no means shy. It seems 
more prying and curious than the others of its kind. Its 
remarkable tail (of which the two central feathers project 
some six or eight inches) gives it an individuality of its 
own. In fact, the veriest novice could at a glance dis- 
tinguish between the Pomatorhine, the Arctic and the Long- 
tailed Skuas, at a considerable distance, by their tails. 
*28. FULMARUS GLACIALIS (Linn.).—Fulmar. 
This great ghostly grey moth of a bird was never absent 
from us all the time we were in the Arctic Ocean. It is 
remarkable for its strong yet leisurely flight at sea, circling 
round and round the steamer, often crossing the bows at 
a couple of yards’ distance. Silent, unhurrying and ex- 
pressionless, it follows the ship day and night. On land 
it coasts along the shore or skirts the glen-side, eyeing one 
all the time with a sort of dignified, half-mournful curiosity. 
Far inland these birds were to be seen in plenty ; they often 
sailed within a few feet of us with a most impressive, un- 
ruffled calmness as we plodded along. 
The finding of an enormous dead whalebone whale by 
our steamer some little distance off the South Cape of 
Spitsbergen on July 21, gave us a good opportunity for 
observing these birds. They surrounded the carcase by the 
hundred, many of them so gorged with blubber that they 
could not fly. Even when a boat was lowered, and the 
sailors “landed” on the whale, the Fulmars would not 
