° 1911 J Martin, Description of a Species of Procellaria. 303 



As soon as a whale fish [sic] is caught they arrive by the thou- 

 sands (together with some other birds which I had not the good 

 fortune of securing), alight on the carcass and, paying no heed 

 either to cuts or blows, seize one piece after another and devour 

 them with such a greed as almost to suffocate themselves. They 

 have therefore also a belly-mouth (oesophagus) which, hanging 

 like a bag, extends to the anum, 1 besides which they have only a 

 few small intestines. Their stupid audacity renders them obnoxious 

 and troublesome to the whalers, and for this reason they call the 

 bird Mallemuke, which means a wicked or malicious Gull; there- 

 fore several boatswains are also stationed with their launches on 

 either side of the whale, and these are also called Mallemuken, 

 from the fact that it is their duty, beside handing knives and grind- 

 stones to the harpooners, to chase away the birds with their boat- 

 hooks. In doing this they beat some of them to death in order to 

 obtain for the ship's crew a refreshing soup called by them Puspaes, 

 which is made from the breast of this bird, boiled with rice. The 

 breast is quite fleshy in consequence of the extended flights which 

 they are obliged to make on the stormy sea [i. c, from the great 

 development of the pectoral muscles]. I seldom saw them in the 

 water when the weather was stormy, but only when there was calm 

 and quiet. They do not dive much, but fly high up in the air, and 

 then again close to the surface of the water, should there happen 

 to be anything washed up by the waves, or from the movement of 

 the water caused by the ship. 



They seldom come ashore except to lay their eggs, which is done 

 on the uttermost islets of Spitzbergen, where an island has been 

 named for them Mallemoeken-eyland. 



Beneath the stomach, and inside the coarser feathers of this bird 

 I found a cavity which was surrounded by small and fine down: 

 it cannot be seen from without; but it is quite plain on the bird 

 which I have mounted and from which the figure has been made. 2 

 Perhaps its eggs are hatched out beneath this cavity, and this 

 presumably takes place in the naked rock-crevices; on June 7, 



1 Lat. ace, as in original. (Translator.) 



2 In Fabricius, O., Fauna Groenlandica, Hafniae, 1780, p. 86, the following 

 reference to this " cavity " is made: " Aream deplumen sub abdomine etiam reperi." 



