FULMAR. 
135 
have been shot in Cornwall. In the county of Derby, one 
was killed October 25th., 1847, in a field near a pool at 
Melbourne; it had first alighted on an island in the middle 
of the water. In Oxfordshire, one was found alive in Weston 
wood, in the parish of Weston-on-the-Gfreen, on the 20th. of 
February, 1829; another killed on Port-meadow, near Oxford, 
in May, 1836. It has occurred occasionally also on the Welsh 
coast. So also in Ireland, but considered extremely rare. 
In Orkney, it appears but rarely; a specimen was shot on 
the loch of Gfraemeshall in Holm, in the month of September, 
1846; one at Scalpa, near Kirkwall, in the year 1849. 
It is said to be a regular winter visitant in Zetland. 
The Fulmar migrates southwards in the autumn. 
They are sometimes eaten, but are only indifferent food. 
They are pugnacious among themselves when assembled to¬ 
gether in countless flocks, as they are seen sometimes to prey 
on any common food, and also very fearless at such times, 
as for instance, when a whale has been struck, mingling among 
the men, so as even to require to be thrown out of the way. 
They are partly nocturnal in their habits, like the others. 
If in danger, they defend themselves with their powerful bill, 
and also forcibly eject from it an oil which acts as some 
protection. 
‘They are strong and graceful on the wing, flying almost 
in the teeth of the strongest gale, without any seeming 
movement of their beautifully-rounded pinions; now swooping 
along in the troughs of the sea, now skimming on the snowy 
crests. They are almost constantly on the wing night and 
day, never alighting on the water except during calm and 
moderate weather, and then but rarely. They are very bold, 
flying close to the side of the ship, almost within reach of the 
hand.’ They walk in an ungainly manner when on the 
land or the floating masses of ice. 
They feed voraciously on anything in the shape of food 
that floats on the water, and when satisfied, sleep on the 
ice till again called by their appetite to seek for more. The 
young are fed on an oil, into which these different substances 
are converted. 
The noise that a large flock makes is described as almost 
deafening, ‘something between the cackle of a hen and the 
quack of a duck.’ 
The Fulmar builds on the small grassy shelves that occur 
on the front of high and inaccessible precipices, the result of 
