114 The Albatrosses and Petrels 



white, the upper parts dusky, and the bill light yellowish, and a dark phase, in 

 which the plumage is a uniform dark sooty brown, with the bill olive yellowish 

 or grayish white; the legs and feet are grayish black. This species is widely 

 distributed throughout the southern seas, occasionally wandering north on the 

 Pacific coast of America as far as Oregon, as its power of flight is nearly if not 

 quite equal to that of the Albatrosses. It is known to the whalers as the "Nelly," 

 " Breakbones," or "Stinker," the latter name from its habit of vomiting the 

 foul contents of its stomach, often to a distance of several feet, when approached 

 or wounded. It nests in the same places as the Albatrosses, laying a single large 

 dirty white egg on the bare ground. Its food consists largely when procurable 

 of the blubber and flesh of the seals, sea-elephants, and whales, that are killed 

 for commercial purposes, and, when occasion presents, of the bodies of its feath- 

 ered relatives. Kidder found them abundant on Kerguelen Island, feeding 

 on the carcass of the sea-elephant. "With their huge whitish beaks, light- 

 colored heads (then covered with clotted blood), and disordered dun plumage, 

 they reminded me strongly of Vultures. Like Vultures, also, they had so 

 crammed themselves that they were unable to rise from the ground. They 

 waddled and stumbled to the sea, swam away, and did not rise into the air until 

 half an hour or more of digestion, and perhaps of vomiting, had made it possible." 

 They were also observed eating carrion, and were altogether the filthiest birds 

 on the island. 



The Fulmar Petrels (Fulmarus), of which there are some four or five forms, 

 take the place in the Northern Hemisphere that the Giant Fulmar fills in the 

 southern seas* They are similar to their great relative, but are distinguished at 

 once by their smaller size, none of them exceeding twenty inches in length, by 

 having the bill shorter instead of longer than the tarsus, by the relatively shorter 

 and smaller nasal tubes, and a tail of only fourteen feathers. In the Common 

 Fulmar (F. glacialis) of the North Atlantic, the nasal tubes are distinctly dusky 

 and the whole bill sometimes brownish, while in the remaining forms, which are 

 confined mainly to the North Pacific, these tubes are light-colored, and the bill 

 never dark. In plumage they also exhibit a light and dark phase, in the first 

 having the head, neck, and lower parts white and the upper parts bluish gray, 

 while in the second the plumage is entirely smoky gray. The typical form (F. 

 glacialis) is a very abundant bird throughout the Arctic and the sub- Arctic seas, 

 often following the ships until they enter the pack ice. It possesses great powers 

 of flight, is very graceful on the wing, and is usually seen in the air or rarely sitting 

 on the water. It is not especially gregarious except at the nesting season, but 

 when a supply of food is encountered many thousands may congregate. It is 

 very partial to the fat of the whale, and when one of these huge animals has been 

 killed the Fulmars approach for their share, and not infrequently gorge them- 

 selves to such an extent as to be unable to fly. They are ordinarily very tame 

 and approach so closely as to be readily knocked over with a boat-hook or even 

 taken in the hand, and they also take a baited hook freely, returning at once when 

 liberated to be captured a second time. When taken in the hand they vomit 

 a considerable quantity of clear, amber-colored oil, which possesses a peculiar 



