FEEDING HABITS OF THE FULMARS. 41 



school of small herring or anchovies ; and from their associat- 

 ing with flocks of shearwaters I infer that they derive a part 

 of their food from such schools of small fry when they are 

 common. 



There is, however, a large jellyfish that is usually abun- 

 dant along the coast during the time of the fulmars' sojourn, 

 and these are never disregarded by the ever hungry birds. I 

 have often seen a fulmar sitting on the water by the side of 

 a jellyfish, part of which it had eaten, so filled that it could 

 scarcely move out of the way of the boat. I think the ful- 

 mars enjoy a monopoly of this diet, for I have never seen any 

 other species eating it ; nor will gulls, nor any of the sea-birds 

 that I have observed, pay any attention to a fulmar that is 

 eating a jellyfish, though they all claim their share if the 

 food is of a kind that they care for. 



In flight the fulmars much more resemble the shearwaters 

 than the albatrosses, though they have the habit, common to all 

 these families, of sailing over the water at an angle of about 

 forty -five degrees, with the tip of the lower wing but just 

 above the waves. The wing-beats are rapid, about as with 

 the shearwaters ; and there is at a distance little to distinguish 

 the fulmars in the dark phases from the dark-bodied shear- 

 waters, except the shorter, less pointed wings and heavier body 

 of the fulmars. 



In rising from the w r ater the fulmars, shearwaters, and both 

 species of albatross found with us (the black-footed and short- 

 tailed albatrosses) spread the ^ngs and run along the water 

 for a distance to gain sufficient momentum to lift them clear 

 of the waves. The fulmars will almost invariably* according 

 to my observations, rise toward an approaching boat; while 

 both the shearwaters and albatrosses always fly from any- 

 thing disturbing them, and rise preferably against the wind. 



