PROCELLARIIDM. 29 



FuLMAK Petrel {Fulmarus glacialis). — Another Fulmarus, and the largest of our British 

 Petrels. It is a rare winter visitant to England, but common in some parts of Scotland. It is 

 well known to all Arctic explorers, and will follow their ship to the highest latitudes, especially 

 if they are whale-fishers. In fact, like T. glacialoides, they are particularly at home in the ice, 

 frequenting the Arctic regions, like their cousins do the Antarctic. On the voyage to Australia 

 it would probably only be seen in the English Channel. It is thus described by Yarrell 

 ('British Birds,' vol. iii,): — "In the adult bird the curved point of the bill is yellow, the sides 

 horny white, the superior ridge investing the nostrils greyish-white ; irides straw-yellow ; the 

 whole head and the neck all round, pure white ; the back, all the wing-coverts, secondaries, 

 tertials, upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers, pearl-grey ; wing-primaries slate-grey ; breast, 

 belly, and all the under surface of the body, pure white ; legs, toes, and their membranes, 

 brownish yellow ; the claws slender, but curved and pointed ; whole length, nineteen inches ; 

 wing from anterior bend, twelve inches ; the middle toe and its claw longer than the tarsus." 



Spectacled Petrel (Majaqueus cequinoctiaUs).- — It is a disputed point amongst ornitholo- 

 gists whether this is the same bird as ill. conspicillatus of Gould. Mr. Salvin, in the notes he 

 kindly gave me, says — " This is the bird of the Cape Seas, and is doubtfully distinct from 

 M. conspicillatus of Australia." In the Natural History Museum they are shown as distinct 

 species — M. conspicillatus with white spectacles and white throat ; and M. cEquinoctialis, white 

 under the throat only, and called Cape Hen. Mr. Saunders also considers them the same. In 

 his account of the sea-birds collected by Lord Lindsay's Expedition he says: — "The 

 variations in these specimens are rather peculiar. In all the prevailing colour is sooty black ; 

 but in the first (spec. No. 56, Sept. 19th, lat. 31° 39' S., long. 8° 51' E.) there is a white patch 

 of about three-quarters of an inch in length under lower mandible, and an irregular white 

 streak on the left side, below the line of the gape, but none on the right side; the second 

 (spec. No. 93, Oct. 20th, lat. 32° S.) has rather more white on the throat; and in the third 

 (spec. No. 97, male, Oct. 24th, lat. 29° 45' S.) the white extends as far back as a line from the 

 eyes." At sea they contest with the Skua Gull the name of Cape Hen, and as their flight, size, 

 and general appearance are much like that of the Skua, perhaps from afar they were originally 

 really mistaken one for the other. The Spectacled Petrel is common down south of the line, 

 especially off such islands as are passed en route for Australia. It is thus described by 

 Gould: — "The entire plumage sooty-black, with the exception of the chin, sides of the face, 

 and a broad band which crosses the fore part of the crown, passes down before and beneath, 

 and curves upwards behind the eye, which is white ; nostrils and sides of the mandibles, 

 yellowish horn-colour ; culmen, tips of both mandibles, and a groove running along the lower 

 mandible, black ; irides dark brown." 



