860 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



the greater number of wliicli were not quite adult ; fully 

 adult birds are very exceptional. 



Fulmars usually make their appearance in the month 

 of October, but Mr. Stevenson also records the occur- 

 rence of one as early as August, in the " Zoologist " for 

 1876 (p. 4773). 



The earlier Norfolk naturalists seem to have regarded 

 this species as a rare bird. Sheppard and Whitear do 

 not mention it. Hunt, in his " List," merely says that 

 one killed at Yarmouth is in the possession of Mr. J. J. 

 Gurney ; in the Hooker MS. is mention of one taken at 

 Yarmouth, on 18th November, 1829 ; the Pagets say 

 that it is occasionally caught in the Yarmouth Roads ; 

 and Messrs. Gurney and Fisher speak of it as sometimes 

 found off the coast in autumn ; Mr. Dowell mentions 

 one picked up alive but nearly starved, in Blakeney 

 Harbour, early in the winter of 1855, and another 

 procured at Brancaster, in the winter of 1860-61, since 

 which time many specimens have been recorded in the 

 '' Zoologist " and elsewhere. 



In Mr. Smith's paper, before referred to, on the 

 habits of this species in confinement, he says that the 

 first he received only lived a fortnight, but he subse- 

 quently kept one alive ten weeks, feeding it (for it only 

 took food voluntarily on two or three occasions) by hand 

 on small fish or beef fat. It vomited oil on three occa- 

 sions, and " certainly attempted to throw it over us ; we 

 could see the oil coming up its throat, and when it 

 reached the bill, it shook its head, and threw the oil 

 two feet across the place." It was much troubled with 

 cramp, as was the previous specimen, which Mr. Smith 

 attributed to its treatment in being so long shut up in 

 a hamper or box at the time of its capture, and he 

 thinks that if kept free from cramp they would live 

 longer in confinement. They come so close to the fish- 

 ing-smacks as to be easily taken by a " didle," a sort of 

 landing net for taking up fish from the surface, and 

 when caught do not bite like the skuas. Mr. Smith's 

 captive " was a good hand at climbing ; by the aid of 

 its bill and toes it would get on to a hamper, or any 

 slightly elevated place, and was always delighted to 

 have something to peck at, such as grass or any soft 



