THE FULMAR. 407 
the present writer has never been able to obtain a single speci- 
men of the grey-coloured birds in British seas apart from what 
may have been mere plumage phases dependent on age. These 
srey birds are spoken of as frequenting Spitzbergen seas in 
certain proportions to the lighter-coloured birds,* and to inhabit 
the island of Grimsey within the Arctic Circle, to the north of ~ 
Iceland, to the exclusion of the other form, and they are even 
credited as possessing a distinctive local name, e.g. ‘‘ Smidur,”’ 
or the Hammerman.+ Specimens from British seas, however, 
still seem to be desiderata in collections. Therefore these do 
not help us greatly in tracing dispersals at present, though they 
may yet become helpful.t It would appear, however, from their 
much greater scarcity in the south of their range and the isola- 
tion or local distribution of nesting sites in the north that the 
form is probably a disappearing one, and that in all likelihood 
merely an illustration of dimorphism. But many authors have 
recorded these peculiar forms. Trevor Battye seemed to find 
all the birds in the Spitzbergen seas to be what he terms ‘‘a 
dirty light shade.” The lightest he obtained is now in the 
National Museum, ‘‘ where’”’—as he says—‘‘it can speak for 
itself, and’’—as he further remarks—‘‘ whereas Howard Saunders 
says both forms are very numerous and the light form breeds 
in thousands,” his (Trevor Battye’s) experiences appear to have 
been somewhat different,§ though not clearly defined by him. 
In the North of Europe the range has not been found to 
extend eastward of the Kara Sea; at all events, records thence 
are scarce or negligible. 
In Spitzbergen it has long been found in vast numbers (vide 
A. Newton, ‘ Ibis,’ 1865). 
In Novaya Zemlya the Fulmar was abundant on the north 
coasts of the North Island, and was observed at the highest 
latitudes attained, but was not seen by Markham in the Kara 
Sea. || 
* Newton, quoting Faber (cf. ‘ Naumannia,’ vii. p. 487). 
+ See also Newton in Appendix to Baring-Gould’s ‘Iceland,’ p. 419. 
Also Howard Saunders’s ‘ Manual,’ 2nd ed., 1899, p. 751. 
} Yarrell (loc. cit.). 
§ ‘Ibis,’ October, 1897. 
|| Idem, October, 1897; Feilden, op. cvt. 1870, pp. 808, 310; and Von 
Heuglin, op, cit. 1872, pp. 60-65. 
