FULMAR-PETREL 403 



Selous, 1 will it rise a little on its feet and shuffle a few steps, but even 

 then doing no more than turn round. This passiveness is due at first 

 to sheer inability to move, and later to an inherent disinclination. 

 These conditions we must attribute to natural selection having 

 weeded out all those individuals which were of a restless disposition, 

 for on the narrow ledges which form their nurseries a move so much 

 as six inches would in most cases mean instant death by being dashed 

 to pieces against the foot of the cliff. 



During a portion of each day the youngster is brooded by the 

 female, or she sits beside it, remarks Mr. Selous, " nibbling with her 

 bill amidst its long, soft, white fluff, the chick sitting still the while, 

 with its beak held open, but not at all as though it were thinking of 

 food." At night one or other of the parents, apparently the female, 

 sleeps beside it, the youngster turning the head back and burying 

 the beak between the wing and the body, as is the custom with roost- 

 ing birds. 



The young one is fed by placing its beak within that of the 

 parent, receiving, apparently, a mouthful of oil. Solid food does not 

 seem to be given during the downy nestling stage. Both adult and 

 young possess the power of ejecting this oil, which has a peculiar and 

 most pungent smell, at any adversary by whom they may be threat- 

 ened, and their aim is good. As the noisome fluid leaves the mouth 

 the jaws are opened to their fullest possible extent. Similarly they 

 possess the power of ejecting the excrement with considerable force 

 and to a surprising distance, so that it is carried clear of the nest, 

 a most important sanitary measure. 



At times, at any rate, the female seems, according to Mr. Selous, 2 

 to resent the approach of her mate while she is brooding her young, 

 squirting oil at him, and uttering an angry " ak, ak, ak, ak" sometimes 

 preceded by a more or less curious "rherrrrrr" 



The fulmar presents a light and a dark phase of plumage ; in the 



1 The Bird- Watcher in the Shetlands, pp. 89-90. 

 * Ibid., pp. 92, 201. 



