ALASKA. 19rt 



" It is common around OunalasUka Island, where I saw a 

 large number, on my way to San Francisco, in August, 1873." 



SSSa. Fulniai'us glacialis var. rodgersi, (Cass.) CovTLS.—Eodgera's 



Fulmar. " Lupus." 

 Fulmarus rodgersii, Cass. Proo. Phila. Acad., 290, (1862.)— Coues. 



op. cif., 29,(1866.)— B.iiED. Tr. Chicago Acad., i, 323, pi. 34, 



flg. 1, (1869.)— Dall et Bank. Hid., 303. 

 Fulmarus glacialls xax.rodgersi, Coues. — Key N. A. Birds, 327, 



(1872.) 



Distinguished from the ordinary fulmar by the restriction of 

 the darker slate-gray mantle, mostof the wing-coverts and some 

 of the secondaries being white. 



An egg of this fulmar, procured by Mr. Elliott, is much more 

 elongate than the only specimen of F. glacialis before me, and 

 the shell is even rougher than in the latter, with innumerable 

 raised points and minute fossae. It measures 2.90 in length by 

 1.90 in breadth, and is scarcely more pointed at one end than 

 at the other. The color is white, much soiled, in this instance, 

 with adventitious yellow discoloration. The description applies 

 to the whole of a large series examined. 



" This is the only representative of the Procellarince I have 

 seen on or about the Prybilov Islands. It repairs to the cliffs, 

 especially on the south and east shores of Saint George's, 

 comes very early in the season, and selecting some rocky 

 shelf, secure from all enemies save man, where, making no nest 

 whatever, it lays a single large, white, oblong-oval egg, and 

 immediately commences the duty of incubating. It is one of 

 the most devoted of all water-fowl to its charge, for it will not 

 be scared from the egg by any demonstration that may be 

 made in the way of throwing rocks or yelling, and will even 

 die as it sets rather than take to flight, as I have frequently 

 ■witnessed. 



" The fulmar lays by 1st to 5th of June. The egg is very 

 palatable, fully equal to that of our domestic duck — even 

 better. The natives lower themselves over the cliffs, and 

 gather a large number of eggs every season on Saint George's 

 Island.* 



* But it is hazardous work, aud these ijeople on St. George seldom gather 

 more than they want at the time of talking. The sensatiou experienced by 

 the writer, who has dangled over these precipices on a slight thong of 

 raw-hide, with the surf boiling three or four hundred feet below, and loose 

 rocks rattling down from above, anyone of which was liable to destroy life, 

 is one not to be expressed by language, and which, I think, quite sufficient 

 excuse for the natives to be content with just as few eggs as possible. — H. W. E. 



