250 



of Natural 



had not found it to be luminous. Hoffman - 

 scgg, the Prince Von Nicuwied, and still 

 more recently M. Lacordaire (the two last 

 named authors having been long resident 

 in South America), also concur in this 

 opinion, none of the individuals they had 

 ever seen alive exhibiting the least trace of 



(FOLOARIA LATERNARIA.) 



luminosity. The majority of the natives 

 also, who had been questioned on the subject, 

 denied the luminous power, although a few 

 affirmed it ; hence Lacordaire suggests 

 whether one sex may be luminous and the 

 other not. Dr. Hancock read a memoir on 

 the luminosity of the Fulg. laternaria before 

 the Zoological Society, on 24th June, 1834, 

 in which its luminosity is considered en- 

 tirely fabulous. M. Wesmael has recently 

 reasserted the luminous property of the 

 South American species, on the authority 

 of a fi iend who had witnessed it alive. And 

 W. Baird, Esq. has informed me of the ex- 

 istence of a Chinese edict, against young 

 ladies keeping lanthoni-flies." Mr. Adam 

 White, in the Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History, published an extract from 

 a letter of J. Bowring, Esq., of Hong Chang, 

 where the F. Canddaria is very abundant, 

 but not known to be luminous. The species 

 are generally very showy, and have been 

 mostly figured by Mr. Westwood. In the 

 British Museum there is a fine collection of 

 them. 



FULICA. [See COOT.] 



FULMAR. (Procellaria glacialis.) A 

 Palmiped bird belonging to the Petrel 

 family ; abounding in northern latitudes, 

 though rarely seen in warm or temperate 

 climates ; in fact, it has been met with not 

 only in arctic and antarctic regions, but 

 even at the foot of those impenetrable bar- 

 riers, the floating islands and eternal moun- 

 tains of ice and snow. It measures seven- 

 teen inches in length, and weighs twenty- 

 two ounces. The bill is about two inches 

 long, and strongly formed ; the hook or nail 

 of the upper mandible, and the truncated 

 termination or tip of the under one, are 

 yellow ; the other parts grayish ; the nostrils 

 are contained in one sheath, divided into 

 two tubes. The head, neck, all the under 



These birds are extremely greedy and 

 gluttonous, and will devour any floating 

 putrid substances : they feed principally on 

 fish, and on the blubber or fat of whales, 

 and other animals ; which being soon con- 

 vertible into oil, supplies it with provision 

 for its young, and with the constant means 

 of defence ; for the Fulmar, like all the 

 Petrels, has a peculiar faculty of spouting 

 from its bill, to a considerable distance, a 

 large quantity of pure oil. Pennant, speak- 

 ing of those which inhabit the isle of St. 

 Kilda, says "No bird is of such use to the 

 islanders as this : the Fulmar supplies them 

 with oil for their lamps, down for their beds, 

 a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their 

 wounds, and a medicine for their dis- 

 tempers." The female is said to lay only 

 one white and very brittle egg, which she 

 hatches about the middle of June. 



FUNGIA. A genus of Zoophytes, of 

 which there are several species, both recent 

 and fossil, principally from the Indian seas. 

 They belong to the JUiKlrepJii/lIiiea of De 

 Blainville, and consist of animals in nearly 

 the lowest state of organization ; for although 

 they are universally allowed to be animals, 

 they are completely without the power of 

 motion, consisting simply of a living gela- 

 tinous film, which is endowed with the ca- 

 pability of constructing for itself a stony 

 support or framework, derived from the 

 surrounding water. In form it is generally 

 orbicular or oval ; mouth superior, trans- 

 verse in a large disc, which is covered by 

 many thick cirriform tentacula ; and the 

 disc is solidified internally by a calcareous 

 solid pcilyparium, of a simple figure. We 

 are indebted for the following interesting 

 remarks to the elaborate description given 

 of Fungia by Mr. Rymer Jones. " If we 

 investigate the history of the Fungia a little 

 more closely, it is beautiful to observe in 

 apparently one of the most helpless and 

 useless members of creation, the operations 

 of the same power and foresight that shield 

 and guard the highest and most intelligent. 

 The Fungia, whilst it is alive, lies upon the 

 sand at the bottom of the shallow seas of 

 warm climates, or has its base loosely im- 

 bedded in the sand. It is unattached by 

 any pedicle or root, so that a passing wave of 

 any violence might easily take it up and 



parts, and the tail arc white ; back and , 

 wing-coverts blue gray ; quills dusky blue ; | 

 eggs yellowish, sometimes inclining to red. ' 

 The body is thickly clothed with feathers . 

 upon a fine close djwn. 



wash it to a distance from the spot it origi- 

 nally occupied. This being the case, what 



