The Fulmars 



venture into harbors. Willett has taken them from the terminal of the 

 Los Angeles trunk sewer at Hyperion. Mr. C. H. Anthony once pursued 

 and captured by hand in San Diego Bay a specimen in apparently sound 

 condition, too stupid or too confiding to escape by flight. Mr. White and 

 I saw six Fulmars, all in the dark phase of plumage, from Stearns Wharf, 

 at Santa Barbara, on the 23rd of December, 191 1. They presented a sin- 

 gularly stolid appearance as they sat the water with bills nearly level or 

 slightly down-turned, and floated within thirty feet of us. 



The veteran ornithologist, Mr. A. W. Anthony, made a careful study 

 of the Fulmars on a well-known fishing-bank ten miles west of Point 

 Loma, and we are indebted to his report 1 for the following facts: 



Fulmars are usually found associated with Shearwaters, especially 

 with Puffinus opisthomelas, though in much smaller numbers, usually in the 

 proportion of about one to fifty. They have much the same habit of 

 flying close to the water, with alternating flap and sail, and with the 

 plane of the wings inclined sharply. There is, indeed, little to distinguish 

 Fulmars from Shearwaters, save the shorter, less pointed wings, and the 

 stouter proportions of the body. 



The staple food of Fulmars is the jelly-fish; and their occurrence in 

 winter is pretty largely determined by the relative abundance of Medusae. 

 The caloric value of this ration is very slight, to atone for which the birds 

 are obliged to consume enormous quantities. A Fulmar, discovering a 

 medusa of a certain giant species, will alight beside it and gorge itself 

 until it is unable to rise from the water. 



Fish, however, vary the Fulmar's diet, and no sort of animal food is 

 rejected. "Unlike the Shearwaters, they seldom pass a craft without 

 turning aside to at least make a circuit about it before flying on. If the 

 vessel is a fishing sloop sounding on the banks, the chances are in favor 

 of the Shearwaters being forgotten and allowed to disappear in the dis- 

 tance while the Fulmar settles lightly down on the water within a few 

 yards of the fisherman. The next Fulmar that passes will, after having 

 made the regulation circuit, join the first until within a few minutes a 

 flock of six or eight of these most graceful and handsome Petrels have 

 collected, dancing about on the waves as light and buoyant as corks. 

 As the lines are hauled up after a successful sound, the long string of often 

 twenty to thirty golden-red fish [rock cod] are seen through the limpid 

 water while still several fathoms in depth, and great excitement prevails. 

 Any Fulmars that have grown uneasy and have started out on the 

 periodical circuit of the craft immediately alight a few yards to windward. 

 Those that are on the water and have drifted away hasten to the spot 

 with wings outspread and feet pattering along on the water." 



'"The Auk." Vol. XII., April, 189s, p. 100-105. 



1993 



