S'ULMAR. 359 



of the two smaller skuas, which, as I have said, in the im- 

 mature plumage, are somewhat difficult to distinguish : — 

 " From the great variation in the plumage at this early 

 stage — in both Buffon's and Richardson's skuas — as well 

 as the similarity in size, Mr. Saunders points out (see 

 ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1876, p. 327 ; 

 and the 'Field,' January 17th, 1880), as a certain 

 distinction at any age, that in Buffon's the shafts of 

 the two outer primaries are white, those of the remain- 

 ing primaries being dusky ; whilst in Richardson's 

 slvua the shafts of all the primaries are white throughout 

 the greater part of their extent ; and even in young 

 birds it is only towards the tips that the shafts are of a 

 shade at all approaching that of the webs." To this 

 may also be added a hint supplied by another well- 

 known authority in such matters, Mr. John Hancock, 

 who states, " Birds of Northumberland and Durham " 

 (p. 137), that the two middle tail-feathers in Buffon's 

 skua are obtuse in the young state, while in the arctic 

 they are always pointed. Mr. H. C. Hart (" Zoolo- 

 gist," 1880, p. 210) states from personal observation 

 that in the male the projection of the middle tail- 

 feathers is from seven to eight inches ; in the female, 

 six inches or a trifle over. 



FULMARUS GLACIALIS (Linnaeus). 



FULMAR. 



The fulmar petrel, attracted by the herring boats at 

 sea, is not unfrequently met with off the Norfolk coast in 

 the autumn and winter months, the large majority being 

 immature birds, but those occurring inshore are gene- 

 rally storm-driven individuals often in a state of exhaus- 

 tion. They are not unfrequently brought in by the 

 Yarmouth smacksmen, and Mr. George Smith, in a 

 paper published in the " Trans, of the Norfolk and 

 Norwich Nat. Soc." (iv., p. 223) to which I shall have 

 again to refer, states that between October, 1878, and 

 December, 1885, he had thus obtained fifteen examples, 



