FULMAR-PETREL 401 



a higher and more plaintive key, suggesting the differences between 

 males and females. 



Whether incubating or brooding young, the parents do not seem 

 to issue from their fastnesses till dusk or later. And the fact that 

 during the summer more or fewer Manx-shearwaters may be seen 

 abroad at all hours of the day suggests that they are non-breeding 

 birds. 



While in favoured localities the Manx-shearwater still breeds 

 among us in large numbers, from some of its strongholds it has 

 been ousted. In the Isle of Man, according to Yarrell, it was exter- 

 minated by rats, while its namesake the puffin succeeded in effecting 

 its complete eviction from Pabbay, one of the Hebrides. From which 

 we may gather that in the struggle for existence the Manx-shearwater 

 makes but a poor fighter 



FULMAR -PETREL 



This remarkably interesting bird, one of the most gull-like of the 

 Petrels, is but seldom seen save by those " who go down to the sea in 

 ships," or who have to make a pilgrimage to St. Kilda, when, for a 

 few weeks, they are constrained to rest on land while performing their 

 allotted task of propagating their species. At all other times of the 

 year it is a strictly oceanic bird living far from land, but contriving to 

 obtain an abundance of food in the shape of cuttle-fish and surface- 

 floating organisms, supplemented by offal cast from ships, and the 

 blubber and oil obtained by attendance on whaling vessels. In their 

 eagerness to secure this they approach so near to those engaged in 

 flensing operations that they may be knocked down with an oar, or 

 even taken by the hand. When following a ship they display all the 

 skill of gulls, and according to some authorities are even more deft at 

 turning movements, and more buoyant and graceful in flight ; but in 



