FULMAR 839 



living silently about in all directions, but never by any chance 

 soaring over the land ; they passed backwards and forwards along 

 the face of the cliff, and for some considerable distance out to sea, 

 whilst the waves, a thousand feet below, were dotted thickly with 

 floating birds. The silence of such an animated scene impressed 

 me : not a single fulmar uttered a cry. . . . No bird flies more 

 gracefully than the fulmar : it seems to float in the air without any 

 exertion, often passing to and fro for minutes together with no per- 

 ceptible movement of its wings. ... It is a remarkably tame bird, 

 fluttering along within a few feet of you, its black eye glistening 

 sharply against its snow-white dress. ... In some parts of the 

 cliffs, where the soil is loose and turf-grown, the ground is almost 

 white with sitting fulmars. Every available spot is a fulmar's nest ; 

 and as you explore the cliffs, large numbers of birds fly out from all 

 directions where they had not previously been noticed. ... It very 

 rarely burrows deep enough in the ground to conceal itself whilst 

 incubating, and in the majority of cases only makes a hole large 

 enough to half-conceal itself, whilst in a great many instances it is 

 content to lay its eggs under some projecting tuft, or even on the 

 bare and exposed ledge of a cliff, in a similar place to that so often 

 selected by the guillemot. . . . The nests are very slight, and in a 

 great number of instances are dispensed with altogether.' 



Of the number of fulmars, the same observer says : ' The myriads 

 of birds were past all belief : the air was darkened with their num- 

 bers ; still the cliffs were white with birds, and I calculated that not 

 more than one in ten had risen. The fulmars filled the air like large 

 sno wflakes, and the hordes of puffins looked like a huge swarm of bees, 

 darkening the air as far as we could see. Myriads of birds swept 

 round the vessel or filled the air above ; the face of the cliffs seemed 

 crumbling away as the living masses swept seaward ; yet, singularly 

 enough, little noise was made beyond the humming of countless 

 wings. The mighty peaks of these solitary ocean rocks were indis- 

 tinctly seen through the surging cloud of birds, that seemed almost 

 as if it would descend and overwhelm us.' 1 



Two petrels remain to be noticed : the capped petrel (CEstrelata 

 hcesitata) and Bulwer's petrel- (Bulweria coliimbina), one 

 straggler having been obtained of the first species, and two of the 

 second, on the east coast of England. 



1 Seebolmi's British /;//W,<. 



z 2 



