292 OUR RARER BIRDS 



for days. Small nuts are now and then taken from the 

 inside of the Fulmar, picked up by the bird from the Gulf- 

 stream, which has conveyed them from distant equatorial 

 regions. The Fulmar swims lightly and buoyantly, and the 

 waves are usually its only cradle. It is much more diurnal in 

 its habits than the Shearwater and the other species of Petrel 

 whose habits we are about to examine. 



For the purpose of studying the habits and economy of 

 the Fulmar I visited St. Kilda, and stayed nearly a fortnight 

 on that lonely isle in no part of its extensive range can the 

 bird be observed to better advantage. In approaching these 

 famous islands the ornithologist will gaze at them with great 

 disappointment, for not a tithe of their bird-riches is exposed 

 to view; not a single Fulmar can be seen, and the place 

 seems almost destitute of bird-life. The illusion is but 

 transitory. The great stronghold of the Fulmar is out of 

 sight, behind the towering hills and crags that hem the small 

 bay on three sides ; and it is not until you have ascended 

 them that a glimpse of the bird can be obtained. In crossing 

 the forty miles of Atlantic swell that separates St. Kilda from 

 the Outer Hebrides, a few stray Fulmars may fly round the 

 vessel or flutter above the masthead ; but that is the only 

 sign we notice of the famous bird bazaar we are quickly 

 approaching. My first impressions of the St. Kilda cliffs 

 were disappointing. It was not until I had lived among them 

 for some time that I fully realised their awful grandeur. 

 Nevertheless, with a few exceptions, these cliffs are easy of 

 access. Most of them are broken, and all are more or less 

 studded with grassy slopes on which sheep graze in comparative 

 safety. Some of the majestic rock-stacks, rising sheer up from 

 the sea, are almost inaccessible to man, and it is very rarely 

 they can be approached except in the calmest weather. I 

 have seen the waves dash against them with such fury as to 

 toss the clouds of spray and foam a hundred feet or more up 



