FULMAR 



Fulmarus glaciahs 



. KILDA is the principal breeding station of the Fulmar 

 in the British Islands, but during the last few years it 

 has taken up its abode in small colonies along the 

 precipitous cliffs of the west of Shetland, and there are 

 now three or four fair-sized colonies. It is said to have 

 bred in one locality on the west of Skye. 



The Fulmar lives exclusively at sea, often at immense 



distances from land, and only visits some rocky island to rear its young. It 

 has great powers of flight, and somewhat resembles a Gull in its colouring, 

 but no one who has once seen it soaring with outstretched wings could ever 

 mistake it for that bird. The Fulmar never seems to tire, but follows 

 the whalers and deep-sea fishing-boats for the scraps of fish and offal that are 

 cast overboard. When the bird takes a large piece of food it sits on the 

 water and tears it to pieces with its powerful hooked bill, but smaller pieces 

 are bolted whole. They follow the Atlantic steamers in small parties, sailing 

 backwards and forwards in the wake of the ship, ready to pounce down on 

 any scrap of food that may be thrown overboard. 



The Fulmar is a very silent bird, and seldom utters a note of any kind. 

 Only once have I heard a sound uttered by this bird, and that was in 

 Shetland, in June, about midnight, as I lay on a flat piece of rock looking 

 over the cliff at three or four Fulmars, sitting on their single eggs not far 

 below me. The mate of one of these birds alighted beside it, and the sitting 

 bird at once rose off the egg uttering a low crooning sort of note ' coo-roo, 

 coo-roo,' rather like the murmuring notes of the Ringdove ; it then flew from 

 the ledge, leaving the new-comer to sit on the nest. 



The food of the Fulmar consists of garbage of all kinds, and any oily 

 substance, fish, molluscs, etc. In its stomach large quantities of sorrel are 

 usually found, perhaps to counteract the effects of its oily food. 

 VOL. in. 2 Q 149 



