248 BRITISH ‘SEA “BIRDS: 
birds leave the rocks in masses so dense, that 
one is apt to think the entire face ofthe cliffs is 
crumbling away. Large numbers of Fulmars are 
snared by the natives, and upwards of 20,000 
young birds are killed every season at St. Kilda, 
which, after the fat and oil are extracted from them, 
are salted and kept for food. When caught, the 
Fulmar vomits a quantity of clear amber-coloured 
oil, and a little flows from the nostrils. During 
the Fulmar harvest in autumn, the birds, as they 
are taken, are made to vomit this oil into dried 
gullets of the Gannet, which the fowler carries for 
the purpose hung round his waist. This oil is 
valued as a sheep dressing, and is said to be a 
sovereign remedy for rheumatism. The typical 
race of the Fulmar is an inhabitant of the North 
Atlantic basin, ranging southwards in winter as 
low as the latitude of New York in the west, amd 
Gibraltar in the east. 
FORK-TAILED PETREL. 
A year after this species was first described by 
Vieillot, under the name of Procellaria leucorhoa, 
it was discovered at St. Kilda by Bullock. This 
was early in the present century, but the islands, 
known collectively by that name, still continue to 
be its most famous breeding place in our area, or 
even in Europe. Three years after its discovery, it 
was rechristened P. feacht by the French naturalist 
Temminck, a name which has found favour with 
