VOL. VIII.] HABITS OF FULMAR PETREL. 237 



push it under her feathers, arranging and rearranging 

 these until the egg is firml}^ amongst them; she also 

 turns round and round in the nest until in a perfectl}'^ 

 comfortable position, and not until all this is accom- 

 plished will she settle down. After she has been sitting 

 for some time, the egg is so firmly embedded in the thick 

 feathers, that if she leaves hurriedly she is not able 

 to dislodge the egg before leaving. On one occasion I 

 found this out to my cost. I was chmbing round a 

 difficult corner, with my camera on my back, when a 

 bird above me became startled, left her nest in a great 

 hurry, and when she had proceeded about a yard the 

 egg dropped from her feathers and came tumbling down 

 towards me. As fortune would have it, this happened 

 to be an addled egg, and it struck a piece of rock a few 

 inches from my face! I could not move quickly, as 

 I might have followed the rest of the egg down the cliff 

 if I had attempted to do so ; all I could do was to hold 

 tight, close my eyes and wait for the result! It was 

 the very worst egg I ever had anything to do with, 

 and it wiU be a long time before I forget the smell 

 and the contents that were scattered over my face 

 and clothes I 



Only one egg is laid, and the majority of the young 

 leave their sheUs about the last week of June. As soon 

 as they are hatched they have a remarkable method 

 of defending themselves. When a supposed enemy 

 approaches them, they open their beaks and shoot at 

 the intruder a quantity of evil-smelling green oil ; the 

 first charge will carry about a yard, but the second 

 and third charges fall short of this. One youngster 

 made a very successful shot at my camera, and succeeded 

 in placing the best part of one charge right in the centre 

 of my lens ! The old birds are able to shoot a greater 

 distance than the young, and during the several hours 

 that I spent with the birds I had a good quantity of 

 this oil on my clothes, and it was many weeks before 

 the smeU finally left them. 



