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Genus FULMARUS. 



Procellaria apud Brisson, Orn. vi. p. 143 (1760). 



Fulmarus, Stephens in Shaw's Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. 1, p. 234 (1825). 



Rhantistes apud Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 105 (1829). 



Wagellus apud G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of B. p. 78 (1840). 



The Fulmar Petrels inhabit the northern portions of the Palsearctic and Nearctic Regions ; and 

 only one species is found in the Western Palgearctic Region, where it is tolerably common in 

 some portions. They, like the Petrels and Shearwaters, are essentially oceanic in their habits, 

 frequenting the ocean, being often found far from land. They have a rapid, gliding flight, and 

 skim along the surface of the water, describing long curves, and now and again touching the 

 water. They feed on blubber, fish, fatty substances, Crustacea, and mollusca, which they pick 

 up from the surface ; and when caught they eject a clear oily matter from their mouth and 

 also through their tubular nostrils. They breed on the ledges of cliffs, making a nest of dried 

 herbage and withered tufts of the sea-pink, and deposit a single white egg, which has a rather 

 rough surface and a musky smell. 



Fulmarus glacialis, the type of the genus, has the bill shorter than the head, stout, higher 

 than broad at the base, moderately compressed, straight, with the tip much decurved, the point 

 acute, lower mandible with the angle long and narrow, the sides erect, with a longitudinal 

 groove, the edges sharp, the dorsal line very short, ascending, slightly concave, the edges 

 decurved at the end ; nostrils tubular, the plate covering them separated by grooves from the 

 erect convex sides ; wings long, narrow, pointed, the first quill longest ; tail moderate, rounded ; 

 legs of ordinary length, stout, the tibia bare below, the tarsus reticulated ; hind toe very small, 

 with a conical claw ; anterior toes slender, with the webs full ; claws moderate, arched, com- 

 pressed, moderately acute. 



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