PETRELS 91 



Wings long and pointed. Feet webbed. Tail rounded. Upper- 

 parts sooty-black. This colour extends down on each side of the 

 posterior end of the body, except for which and brown mottling 

 on the side of the neck, the under-parts are white. The rarer 

 great-shearwater , which is to be seen in autumn, may be dis- 

 tinguished by its larger size (19 in.) and brownish upper-parts. 



Nest. In a burrow made in the soil, on the slopes of a sea- 

 cliff, or island, sometimes in rabbit holes or in the recesses 

 of rocks and under stones. Material : chiefly grass ; some- 

 times no material. The species breeds in colonies. 



Egg. One. White. Av. size, 2'39 x T67 in. Laying begins 

 May. One brood. 



181. Fulmar, mollymauk [Fulmarus glacialis glacialis (Lin- 

 naeus)]. Seen off all our coasts, but breeds only on the west 

 and northern Scottish coasts and islands, and a few places 

 on the Irish coasts. 



Bird. Length 19 in., i.e. about the size of the common- 

 gull. External tubular nostrils (see Fig. 

 106). Beak hooked at the tip and 

 mostly yellowish. Feet webbed. Mantle 

 and tail grey. Wing quills mostly dusky. 

 Rest of plumage white or varying shades 

 of grey. 



Nest. On the ledges, in the recesses, 

 or in a hollow in the vegetation-covered -p- ^Q^ 



slopes of sea-cliffs. Occasionally tops of 

 stacks. Sometimes no material, sometimes a few grasses, &c., 

 or fragments of stone. Species breeds in colonies. 



Egg. One. White, occasionally traces of red spots. Av. 

 size, 2-88 x 1'95 in. Laying begins in May. One brood. 



182. Storm-petrel [Hydrolates pelagica (Linnaeus); Procel- 

 laria pelagica Linnaeus]. Seen off all our coasts, chiefly in 

 spring and autumn. Breeds on the islands off our west coasts, 

 from Scilly to Shetlands, and off the Irish 



coasts. More rarely on E. Scottish coasts. 

 Bird. Length 6^ in. Distinguished 

 from all species outside its own suborder 

 (Petrels, Shearwaters, Fulmars, Alba- 

 trosses) by the prominent external tube- 

 shaped nostrils, which give the suborder 

 its name Tubinares. Feet webbed. Beak 

 and legs black, the former with hooked 

 tip. Plumage black, except the con- y. ^ 



spicuous white of the posterior end of 



the body (see figure), and the thin white margins on the 

 major wing-coverts. The rarer Leach's forktailed-petrel re- 



