538 



those who fish a great way out at sea. I noticed it following the steamer after we got about 



thirty miles north of the Shetlands ; and their number increased as we approached the Faeroes, 



though they left us as we entered the Sound of Naalsoe, apparently not caring for the more 



settled waters of the fiords. Truly oceanic in their natures, they seem to exult in sailing down 



the trough of the huge Atlantic billows ; and it is most interesting to watch their powers of 



flight : one steady flap, and then for several minutes they sail along without any apparent 



vibration of their wings, excepting when they change their course by a see-saw motion of the 



pinions. It was somewhere about 1839 that a few pairs of Fulmars were first discovered 



breeding at Qualboe, in Suderoe ; now they are abundant there in the breeding-season, and have 



spread to Great Dimon, Skuoe, Myggenses, Videroe, and Fugloe, in all of which islands it nests 



in large numbers. The natives value the young so highly as food, that it is difficult to induce 



them to let one take a few eggs. The Fulmar sits close, and does not move from the egg until 



the fowler is quite close : in many cases there would be no difficulty in capturing the old bird 



on the egg : this was done for me by a fowler at Myggenses : the oil which exuded from this 



bird's bill when captured stained the feathers a delicate salmon hue." On the Scandinavian 



coasts it is rather rare than otherwise. According to Collett it occurs more or less numerously 



from the autumn to the spring, all along the coasts of Norway from East Finmark to Stavanger, 



and may possibly breed there within the Arctic circle. One, a young bird, was shot in the fiord 



off Christiania in December 1857. It may sometimes occur on the larger rivers; and Professor 



Newton mentions that Ludwig, his collector, wrote to him that he saw a "Hav-hest" at Kolari, 



on the Muonio, just above its confluence with the Tornea, as he descended the former river. It 



is common in Spitzbergen. Malmgren says that he found a breeding-place north of Brandywine 



Bay, in 80° 24' N. lat., inhabited by thousands of Fulmars, which were nesting from about 600 



to 800 feet above the sea ; and he remarks that the dark-grey bird is certainly the young bird. 



Professor Newton also writes (Ibis, 1865, p. 511) as follows: — "This is another of the birds 



which were found at the northernmost latitude attained by Parry's expedition. It is very 



abundant all round Spitsbergen, so far as my information goes. Dr. Malmgren found it 



breeding in thousands on the north side of Brandywine Bay, lat. 80° 24' N. It breeds besides, 



but in small numbers, on the Alkenhorn, whence, as I have said, I have an egg. Dr. Malmgren 



was good enough to present me with an egg from Bear Island, where it also breeds plentifully. 



Fulmars vary in size not inconsiderably ; but I see no reason to believe in the existence of a 



second species, at least not in the northern hemisphere. Anton Rolandson Martin (who must 



not be confounded with Friedrich Marten) in 1758 visited Spitsbergen; but the only result of 



his voyage I can discover is a very good description of this bird and its habits, though he does 



not seem to have been quite clear about its synonymy." From the Norwegian coast to Novaya 



Zemlya the Fulmar was found numerously on the sea by Dr. Th. von Heuglin ; but it does not 



appear to occur on the mainland of Russia. 



After the bi-eeding-season it occasionally straggles southwards, and has been met with off 

 the coasts of the continent of Europe in several places. It is said to visit the coasts of Bohuslan, 

 in Sweden, in November and December ; but it does not ever penetrate far up the Baltic. 

 Mr. Collin says (Skand. Fugl. p. 580), " Messrs. Hage and Scheel have once seen it in the 

 winter off Moen ; Mechlenburg saw one in Flensborg harbour on the 30th August 1838, after a 



