226 BRITISH BIRDS. 



This species is much more common in cold than in 

 warm or temperate climates : it has been met with 

 in both the arctic and antarctic regions, in all parts 

 which navigators have been able to visit, even to 

 the foot of those impenetrable barriers, the floating 

 islands and eternal mountains of ice and snow. 



In the northern parts of the world, the natives 

 of the various coasts and islands easily catch 

 these heedless birds in great numbers. Pennant, 

 speaking of those which breed on, or inhabit, the 

 Isle of St. Kilda, says "No bird is of such use 

 to the islanders as this : the Fulmar supplies them 

 with oil for their lamps, down for their beds, a 

 delicacy foi their tables, a balm for their wounds, 

 and a medicine for their distempers/' He also 

 says, that it is a "certain prognosticator of the 

 change of the wind : if it comes to land, no west 

 wind is expected for some time; and the contrary 

 when it returns and keeps the sea." 



These birds are extremely greedy and glutton- 

 ous, and will devour any floating putrid substances, 

 such as the filth from the ships, which they fear- 

 lessly follow. They also pursue the whales, but 

 particularly the bloody track of those which are 

 wounded, and in such great flocks as thereby 

 sometimes to discover the prize to the fishers, 

 with whom they generally share ; for when the 

 huge animal is no longer able to sink, the Ful- 

 mars, in multitudes, alight upon it, and ravenously 

 pluck off and devour lumps of the blubber, till 

 they can hold no more. 



The female is said to lay only one large white 

 and very brittle egg, which she hatches about the 

 middle of June. 



