296 FURCULA—FURZE-CHAT 
shallow nest is made in the turf and lined with a little dried grass. 
Many of its breeding-places are a most valuable property to those 
who live near them and take the eggs and young, which, from the 
nature of the locality, are only to be had at a hazardous risk of 
life. In St. Kilda it is said that from 18,000 to 20,000 young are 
killed in one week of August, the only time when, by the custom 
of the community, they are allowed to be taken. These, after the 
oil is extracted from them, serve the islanders with food for the 
winter. This oil, says Mr. Gray, having been chemically examined 
by Mr. E. C. C. Stanford, was found to be a fish-oil and to possess 
nearly all the qualities of that obtained from the liver of the cod, 
with a lighter specific gravity. It, however, has an extremely 
strong scent, which is said by some who have visited St. Kilda to 
pervade every thing and person on the island, and is certainly 
retained by an egg or skin of the bird for many years. Whenever 
a live example is seized in the hand it ejects a considerable 
quantity of this oil from its mouth. Though abounding in certain 
seasons on the banks of Newfoundland, where, according to 
Montagu (Suppl. Orn. Dict.), it was called by the fishermen “John 
Down,” it seems to have no breeding-place on the east coast of 
America, but it has several, which are thronged, on either side of 
Baffin’s Bay. The Fulmar is said by Mr. Darwin (Origin of Species, 
ed. 4, p. 78) to be the most numerous bird in the world; but on 
whose authority the statement is made does not appear, and to 
render it probable we should have to unite specifically with the 
Atlantic bird, not only its Pacific representative, F. pacificus, which 
some ornithologists deem distinct, but also that which replaces it 
in the Antarctic seas and is considered by most authorities to be a 
perfectly good species, /. glacialioides. The differences between 
them are, however, exceedingly slight, and for Mr. Darwin’s 
purpose on this particular occasion it matters little how they are 
regarded. It is a more interesting question whether the statement 
is anyhow true, but one that can hardly be decided yet. 
FURCULA, a name for the two CLAVICLES when coalescent, as 
generally is the case among Birds; in English commonly known 
as the Merrythought or Wishbone.!| Some very peculiar forms of 
the Furcula are presented in certain species of CRANE, GUINEA-FOWL, 
and SWAN, chiefly adaptations to convolutions taken by the TRACHEA, 
as well as in the FRIGATE-BIRD, HOACTZIN, and some others. 
FURZE-CHAT, a name often given to the STONE-CHAT. 
1 Cotgrave, in his Dictionary (1660), explains the former name as “ the forked 
craw-bone of a bird which we use in sport to put on our noses.” The latter comes 
from the practice of two persons, mostly children, each holding one prong of the 
furcula and expressing a wish before breaking it asunder. The one who carries 
off the greater portion expects the fulfilment of his or her wish. 
