248 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



birds leave the rocks in masses so dense, that 

 one is apt to think the entire face of the cliffs is 

 crumbling away. Large numbers of Fulmars are 

 snared by the natives, and upwards of 20,000 

 young birds are killed every season at St. Kilda, 

 which, after the fat and oil are extracted from them, 

 are salted and kept for food. When caught, the 

 Fulmar vomits a quantity of clear amber-coloured 

 oil, and a little flows from the nostrils. During 

 the Fulmar harvest in autumn, the birds, as they 

 are taken, are made to vomit this oil into dried 

 gullets of the Gannet, which the fowler carries for 

 the purpose hung round his waist. This oil is 

 valued as a sheep dressing, and is said to be a 

 sovereign remedy for rheumatism. The typical 

 race of the Fulmar is an inhabitant of the North 

 Atlantic basin, ranging southwards in winter as 

 low as the latitude of New York in the west, amd 

 Gibraltar in the east. 



FORK-TAILED PETREL. 



A year after this species was first described by 

 Vieillot, under the name of Procellaria leucorhoa, 

 it was discovered at St. Kilda by Bullock. This 

 was early in the present century, but the islands, 

 known collectively by that name, still continue to 

 be its most famous breeding place in our area, or 

 even in Europe. Three years after its discovery, it 

 was rechristened P. leachi by the French naturalist 

 Temminck, a name which has found favour with 



