MANX SHEARWATER. 503 



It is soluble in ether. Cold alcohol dissolves less than 1 per cent, 

 and hot alcohol 3 per cent. 



" Treated with a drop of oil of vitriol, it produces precisely the 

 same coloured re-actions as cod-liver oil, which, if the generally- 

 received views be correct, would show it to be a liver-oil. 



" It contains a very faint trace of iodine. 



" Heated with oil of vitriol and excess of potash, it gives off a 

 strong odour of oil of rue. 



" Saponified with soda, the soap retains the peculiar odour, and 

 yields a tolerably fluid fatty acid on acidifying the solution. 



" I shall be glad if this short notice of Fulmar oil will induce any 

 one to experiment with it for medicinal purposes. I have no 

 doubt a good deal might be obtained, and a good market would 

 be a boon to that isolated people/' 



THE MANX SHEARWATER. 



PUFF IN US ANGLORUM. 



Scraib. 



THERE are numerous breeding haunts of this Shearwater through- 

 out the West of Scotland, and the bird itself may be called 

 abundant within the circle of the Inner Hebrides. Westward 

 of that group, the only breeding localities with which I am 

 acquainted are Pabbay one of the isles of Barra, and St. Kilda. 

 Some years ago, the lighthouse keeper at Barra Head informed 

 me that the shearwaters had entirely deserted the island of 

 Bernera, on which the lighthouse is built, none having been seen 

 nesting there since 1843; and Mr Elwes (Ibis, 1869) has the 

 following remarks bearing on the same locality : " This bird was 

 formerly very common, and the young ones, which were called 

 " Fachach," were so highly esteemed that a barrel of them formed 

 part of the rent paid by each crofter in Mingalay, to the Macneills 

 of Barra. About a hundred years ago, however, the puffins, 

 which before were not numerous, began to increase very much, 

 and drove the shearwaters from the holes which they occupied in 

 the cliffs ; and now they have completely supplanted them, so that 

 only a few pairs of shearwaters are left in the island of Pabbay, 

 which is next to Mingalay. The Shearwater seems to be on the 



