38*2 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



make use of this method of defence, the majority of them 



certainly did so. The oil, which was a thin, foul-smelling' 

 amber-coloured liquid, generally containing- green 

 particles floating in it, was usually ejected for a distance 

 of about three feet without, in the first place, much effort, 

 but when, as not unfrequently happened, a second dis- 

 charge was made, this was always preceded by visible 

 efforts at eructation on the part of the bird : I have even 

 known one bird make a third discharge, when closely 

 approached. On two occasions T noted that the vomited 

 matter contained a narrow fresh green frond of the 

 common alga, Enteromorpha compressa, and once I also 

 observed the carapace of a crustacean, apparently a large 

 prawn. Although the oil was often ejected directly at 

 an approaching intruder when perhaps one or two yards 

 off, it was also often discharged in a very random manner 

 long before one came within striking distance, and when 

 descending a cliff I have seen Fulmars parting with 

 their oil when I have been as much as fifteen or 

 twenty feet off, and ejecting it into the air quite 

 away from the direction by which I was approaching. 

 The young ones will eject more oil than the old ones : 

 they Avill even spit it out when only a week old. The 

 Fulmar is the bird which the St. Kildans value most 

 highly, it being specially prized for food, for feathers, 

 and for its oil. The old birds are snared from the nest 

 for these purposes, though only to a comparatively 

 limited extent, by far the greater portion of the supply 

 being furnished by the young birds. The great Fulmar 

 harvest commences on August 12th, when the young birds 

 are about fully fledged, and it lasts about seven or eight 

 days, bv the end of which time most of the vouno- birds 

 which have not been captured have flown. The young 

 birds are caught by hand and killed by breaking the neck. 



