116 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



on the jacket-sleeve of his right arm. He took one 

 or two photographs of this individual bird at very 

 close range, but, unfortunately, they turned out to 

 be failures on account of her having stirred slightly 

 whilst the plate was exposed. 



I believe that Fulmar Petrels are popularly sup- 

 posed to squirt oil at their enemies from their 

 tubular nostrils, but this is certainly not the rule. We 

 saw it ejected from the throat somewhat in the form 

 of a vigorous expectoration, and according to our 



observation it is not propelled 



to nearly the distance stated 

 in some ornithological works. 

 It is surprising to find that 

 one authority, who visited the 

 rocks and studied the species, 

 says he never saw the bird 

 squirt oil at its enemies. We 

 saw this done several times 

 at dogs when they approached 

 the more accessible nooks 

 and ledges on which birds 

 were brooding. Again the same observer records 

 that " the Fulmar breeds on the face of the highest 

 precipices, and only on such as are furnished 

 with small grassy shelves." We repeatedly found 

 eggs on shelves and in corners where there was not 

 a single blade of grass alive or dead ; the nest, if such 

 it could by any stretch of courtesy be called, simply 

 consisting of a slight hollow lined with pebbles 

 and rock chippings, and in some cases of a shallow 

 declivity in the bare peat without a lining of any 

 kind whatsoever. It may be, of course, that the 

 bird has changed its breeding habits as well as its 

 breeding quarters; for I think there is every reason 

 for believing that it formerly nested in the Hebrides, 



MARTIN'S FULMAR. 



