Communications on Birds. 191 



(2) Notices or the Fulmar Petrel (Fulmarus glacialis, L.) 

 — Part I. By David Bruce, Station Master N.B.E., 

 Dunbar. 



On 22nd September 1894 a fisherman brought to me, for identification, 

 a bird captured at sea, about two miles off Dunbar. It proved to 

 be a Fulmar of the second year — the first of its species I have seen 

 here during my 20 years' residence in the district. 



I learn, on good authority, that in some years it is plentiful on 

 the North Sea; but only on the fishing banks, about 30 miles out, 

 off the Flamborough Head district. 



A specimen has also been secured this year in the Moray Firth. 

 The bird captured hei-e was in good plumage, and appeared to have 

 been well fed. The bird attracted the attention of the fishermen by 

 its, to them, strange cry and the voracious manner in which it 

 devoured any refuse thrown to it. 



The Fulmar breeds on St. Kilda, Fonla, Faeroe Isles, and other 

 more northern latitudes. It lays one egg, very large for the size of 

 the bird, white colour. Those in my collection, although lying in my 

 case from five to ten years, still bear the peculiar odour belonging 

 to the Petrel species. 



3rd October 1894. 



Fulmarm glacialin. — Part II. 



In Mr Eobert Gray's Birds of the West of Scotland, 1871, p. 500, 

 it is said — " On the eastern shores of Scotland the Fulmar ranks only 

 as a straggling winter visitant. In East Lothian it is occasionally 

 found in December and .Tannary. I have seen speciniens that were 

 cast up dead on the beach near Dunbar." In an article on the 

 Ornithology of the Dunbar coast, B.N.C. Proc, viii., p. 55, of date 

 1876, he repeats — "The Fulmar and Storm Petrels have both been 

 driven on shores in foul weather." 



Mr George Bolam, in Vol. ix., p. 170, records three examples. One 

 in October 1879, shot on the sands at Holy Island, where another 

 was seen flying past a day or two afterwards. In December Mr Grey 

 picked up a specimen, partly destroyed by crows, that had been 

 washed up by the tide on the shore at Low Stead. 



Mr Robert Grey, in Vol. x., p. 84, speaking of the disastrous storms 

 in the Firth of Forth in October and November 1881, adds that 

 previous to those on the 24th of September, the Fulmar Petrel 

 appeared at North Berwick, and one specimen at least was 

 obtained, 



