Genus PROCELLARIA. 
Gen. Cuar. Beak thick, dilated at the tip, sulcated ; the upper mandible hooked ; the lower 
straight and slightly truncated. _Mostri/s united in a single tube. Legs moderate; a claw 
only in place of the hind toe. 
FULMAR PETREL. 
Procellaria glacialis, Lenn. 
Le Petrel Fulmar. 
Tue genus Procellaria, in which Linnzus placed all the oceanic birds possessing tubular nostrils, and which 
now form an extensive and well-defined family, has been subsequently divided by naturalists into several 
minor groups; and we find that in Europe alone there exist examples which illustrate three genera, viz. 
Procellaria (as now restricted), Puffinus, and Thalassidroma. The Fulmar Petrel constitutes the type of the 
genus to which it is assigned, and appears to form the passage to the true Gulls by the interposition of 
the birds composing the genus Lesér7s. How plainly does the present bird exemplify the wisdom which 
Nature has exhibited in the creation of all her subjects! It is in the almost impenetrable polar regions, 
among floating fields and bergs of ice, often at a great distance from the land, that the Fulmar finds its true 
and natural habitat ; and in order to enable it to endure the severities of the hardest seasons in these northern 
latitudes, Nature has afforded it every necessary protection by clothing it in a thick and warm mass of down 
and feathers of an oily nature, thus precluding cold and moisture. Although the polar regions constitute its 
native locality, it is nevertheless found, but in much less abundance, in more temperate climates, such as the 
northern seas of Europe and America, extending itself throughout the lengthened coast of Norway, and not 
unfrequently Holland and France. It frequents also the northern isles of Great Britain, resorting to the 
Orkney and Hebrides for the purpose of breeding, but particularly to the Island of St. Kilda. 
The food of the Fulmar consists of fish, mollusca, vermes, and the fat of dead cetacea; it will also devour 
any oily substance or refuse thrown from vessels, which it fearlessly follows, particularly those engaged in the 
whale fisheries ; and hence during the season it obtains an easy and bountiful subsistence. They are very 
active and buoyant on the water, and their powers of flight are considerable. 
Their mode of living renders the flesh very disagreeable and unfit for use. Their stomach and body appear 
to be continually saturated with oil; and the circumstance of their being able to eject or discharge a quantity 
of this fluid from their nostrils, when irritated or attacked, is both singular and curious. This power appears 
to have been given them as a mode of defence, and is characteristic of the whole of the family, from the largest 
species to the elegant Stormy Petrel; and even this little creature has the power of squirting out an oily fluid 
from its nostrils with considerable force. 
The Fulmar lays one white egg on the grassy ledges of the rocks and cliffs of our northern islands. They 
make no nest; the egg is very large compared with the size of the bird, and has a strong musky smell, which 
it retains for some time. Our figure represents the plumage of an adult bird ; young birds of the year have 
the back and wings varied with light grey and brown. 
