GULLS. 409 
The Albatross makes its home on the lofty precipices of Tristan d’Acunha, 
the Crozettes, the Marion Islands, and other similar localities. 
The FULMAR PETREL is rather a large bird, being about nineteen inches 
long, and stoutly built. It is very plentiful at St. Kilda, and is used for 
various purposes, furnishing down and oil, besides being itself eaten. Like 
several other Petrels, the Fulmar is able, when alarmed, to eject from the 
mouth the oil with which 
they are so liberally sup- 
plied. The egg—for there 
is never more than one—of 
the Fulmar Petrel is laid 
upon a narrow ledge of 
cliff, and always at a con- 
siderable distance from the 
summit and the bottom of 
the rock. 
THE large family of the 
GULLS is here represented 
by two species, both of which 
are among our British birds. 
The GREAT BLACK- 
BACKED GULL is a very 
fine bird, not very plentiful 
on our coasts, but spread 
over the greater part of the . 
British shores. WANDERING ALBATROSS.—(Diomedea exulans.) 
This bird prefers low-lying 
and marshy lands, and is found on the flat shores of Kent and Essex at 
the mouth of the Thames, where it is popularly known under the name of 
the Cob. It is very plentiful on the shores of Sweden and Norway, and on 
some of the islands of Shetland and Orkney it breeds in abundance, the eggs 
being highly valued on account of their rich flavour and their large size. 
It is a fierce bird, and when wounded will fight vigorously for its liberty. 
The nest of this species is of grass, and generally contains three eggs of 
greenish dun flecked with grey 
and brown. In the summer 
plumage the head and neck of 
the Great Black-backed Gull 
are white ; the upper surface of 
the body is dark leaden grey, 
with some white upon the quill 
feathers of the wings; the 
whole of the under surface is 
pure white, and the legs and feet 
are pinkish. The length of this 
bird is about thirty inches. 
THE common TERN, or SEA 
SWALLOW, is very plentiful on : e 
ourcoasts,andmaybeseenflving = sytmar PETREL.—(Procellaria glacialis.) 
along on rapid wing, its long 
forked tail giving it so decidedly 
a swallow-like air, that its popular name of Sea Swallow is well applied. 
The Tern breeds on low-lying lands, and makes a very rude nest, 
being indeed nothing more than a shallow depression in the earth, into 
which are scraped a few sticks, stones, and dry grasses, The Tern reaches 
