148 



uncomfortable, it vomits — very likely to make itself lighter — 

 but all in vain, it is utterly helpless. This splendid aeronaut 

 must have an edge to start from or at any rate a level to rise 

 from with room enough to use wings and legs for quite a 

 distance. 



The gunwale of the ship is an insurmountable impediment 

 to it unless it is very windy; then perhaps a puff of wind can 

 reach it — and immediately it rises. If it has to rise from the 

 water in calm weather it is obliged to run as far over the sur- 

 face as a coot. At the nesting-places its mode of flight is quite 

 another. It is constantly seen circling high up in the air and 

 makes an impression upon the observer quite different from 

 the above described. 



The Fulmar is a very greedy bird. When the offal of some 

 big catch — whale or seal — is thrown overboard in the arctic 

 Ocean these birds are at once on the spot to get their part of 

 the spoil and they are oft^n so voracious that they may be 

 caught by hand. 



At the eyries there is quite a deafening cackling and 

 jabbering ga-ga-ga-ga which is constantly going on whether 

 the birds are disturbed or not. One can't help getting the im- 

 pression that it must be some everlasting disagreement that 

 accounts for all this jabbering. — When the expedition visited 

 Jan Mayen on the 26*^^ of June young ones were found in the 

 nests, so they seem to breed early. 



Some writers mean that a smaller sized race of these birds 

 exists, and there is in fact a slight variation in size between 

 the single specimens, but on the other hand [ have not found 

 any specimen varying so much from the type that there is any 

 reason for classifying it as a subspecies. 



Here are the measurements of 14 specimens — all males. 

 Nr. length (ctm.) breadth colour 



giey 

 white 

 grey 



1 



50 



- 



112 



2 



50 



- 



113V. 



3 



48 



- 



103 



