LARID.E. 623 



escape it. Though few should be seen when a 

 whale is about being captured, yet as soon as the 

 flenzing process commences they rush in from all 

 quarters, and frequently accumulate to many thou- 

 sands in number." Their appetite and digestion, 

 however, appear to be equal to a much greater 

 variety of food than fat and whale-blubber, as 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., in a note in the ' Zoologist' 

 for 18G8 (Second Series, p. 1482), says the reso- 

 phagus of one contained a bird, which he had no 

 hesitation in saying was a Redwing, a fish of some 

 description, a few Gulls' feathers, and also what he 

 believed to be the mandibles of a cuttle-fish. The 

 cuttle-fish appears to be rather a favourite food of 

 the Fulmar.* 



According to Yarrell the adult bird has the curved 

 point of the bill pale yellow, the sides horny white ; 

 irides straw-yellow ; the whole head and neck all 

 round pure white ; the back, all the wing-coverts, 

 secondaries, tertials, upper tail-coverts and tail- 

 feathers pearl-grey ; wing primaries slate-grey ; 

 breast, belly and all the under surface of the body 

 pure white ; legs, toes and webs brownish yellow. 

 My specimen, which I picked up alive on the south 

 coast of Devon, on the 30th of November, 1866, is 

 probably a younger bird, as it differs from this de- 

 scription of Yarrell's in a few particulars : the irides 



* ' Zoologist ' for 1869 (Second Series, p. 1603). 



