226 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



at an immense bee-hive." Mr. Trevor- Batty e has seen Fulmars " streaming " up 

 an inland valley on their way across Spitsbergen ; but the movement was only 

 local, being undertaken in order that the birds might cross from one fiord to 

 another. Nevertheless it proves that the Fulmar has not such a repugnance to 

 leaving the sea and traversing dry land, as has often been conjectured. 



The Fulmar, like the Arctic or Richardson's Skua, may be said to be 

 dimorphic. All the birds that I ever saw at St. Kilda were grey-mantled birds, 

 the pearly feathers of the back being often mixed with brown, and the head and 

 lower parts pure white. But a beautiful specimen which was obtained on the 

 Solway Firth a few years ago, and which can be seen in the Carlisle Museum, 

 belongs to the second or grey form, in which there is no white breast, but the 

 head and lower parts are of a light blue-grey. Both forms occur in northern 

 latitudes. The Fulmar measures about 19 inches in length; wing 13 inches. 



Family PUFFINIDsE. Subfamily-PUFFININ/E. 



GREAT SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus gravis (O'REILLY.) 



THE Great Shearwater is a widely distributed Petrel. It summers as far 

 north as Greenland, but is believed to spend oiir winter at the Cape of 

 Good Hope and the Falkland Isles. Its egg is unknown. The bird is essentially 

 pelagic, seldom venturing near land, though common on the fishing banks off the 

 Eastern United States. It has been obtained repeatedly in the Faeroes between 

 June and November. It has straggled to Iceland, Norway, Heligoland, and the 

 east coasts of Great Britain. At certain times it appears in great abundance off 

 the south-west coast of England. Most of the British specimens of this Shearwater 

 are procured on the coasts of Cornwall and South Devon. Though rare in Ireland 



