THE COMMON FULMAR. 205 



he says, "were detained by the ice in Jacob's Bay, in latitude 71°, from the 

 24th of June to the 3d of July, Fulmars were passing in a continual stream 

 to the northward, in numbers inferior only to the flight of the Passenger 

 Pigeon in America." While on my way to Labrador, I was told that they 

 bred on the Seal Islands off the entrance of the Bay of Fundy. The egg, 

 which is of a regular ovate form, with a smooth brittle pure white shell, 

 measures two inches and seven-eighths in length, by two inches in breadth. 



My much esteemed friend Mr. Selbt, in his Illustrations of British 

 Ornithology, gives the following account of this species. "The steep and 

 rocky St. Kilda, one of the western islands of Scotland, is the only locality 

 within the British dominions annually resorted to by the Fulmar, the rest 

 of the Scottish and our more southern coasts being rarely visited even by 

 stragglers. Upon St. Kilda these birds are found in vast numbers during the 

 spring and summer months, breeding in the caverns and holes of the rocks; 

 and, from the various uses to which the down, feathers, and oil of the young 

 are applied, contribute essentially to the comfort of the inhabitants. They lay 

 but one egg each, white, and of a large size, with a shell of very brittle texture. 

 The young are hatched about the middle of June, and are fed with oil thrown 

 up by the parents (the produce of the food upon which they subsist), and, as 

 soon as fledged, are eagerly sought for by the natives, although often at the 

 risk of life, in scaling the tremendous and overhanging cliffs in which they 

 nestle. Like most of the group, these birds have the power of ejecting oil 

 with much force through their tubular nostrils, which is used as the principal 

 mode of defence; it becomes an essential point, therefore, that they should 

 be taken and killed by surprise, in order to prevent the loss of a liquid so 

 requisite for the comfort of the inhabitants, by supplying them with the 

 necessary fuel for their lamps. The Fulmar is of voracious appetite, feeding 

 upon all sorts of animal substance, particularly of an oily nature, such as the 

 blubber of whales, seals, &c; and for this purpose it follows in great num- 

 bers the track of the whale vessels, and is so greedy of its favourite food, as 

 to be often seen alighting upon the wounded animal, when not quite dead, 

 and immediately proceeding to break the skin with its strong hooked bill, 

 and gorging itself with the blubber to repletion." 



The Rev. Mr. Scoresby, in his "Arctic Regions," vol. i. p. 528, gives 

 the following account of its habits as observed by him in the polar seas. 



"The Fulmar is the constant companion of the whale-fisher. It joins his 

 ship immediately on passing the Shetland Islands, and accompanies it through 

 the trackless ocean to the highest accessible latitudes. It keeps an eager 

 watch for any thing thrown overboard; the smallest particle of fatty sub- 

 stance can scarcely escape it. As such, a hook baited with a piece of fat 

 meat or blubber, and towed by a long twine over the ship's stern, is a means 



Vol. VII. 30 



