OCCURRENCE OF THE FULMAR PETREL IN YORKSHIRE. 



By J. H. GuRNEY, JuN., F.Z.S. 



Mr. Clarke may be glad of a memoranduin of a Fulmar Petrel, 

 received in October 1868, from Flamborough Head. It was caught 

 with a boathook by a fisherman, who has since been drowned — a 

 circumstance which invests it with a melancholy interest. 



When held up by one leg by the friend from whom I received it, it 

 discharged above a wineglass-full of oil — not from the mouth, as I 

 should have expected, but from its nostrils. I gave this bird to Mr. 

 Gould, and he honored it by figuring it in his work on British Birds. 



It has only once happened to me to see the Fulmar petrel alive, 

 and that was in the English Channel ; but I once— in June, 1869 — 

 picked up a dead one on the shore. It was exactly opposite Saltburn. 

 I had been taking a stroll, when my attention was caught by some of 

 its feathers borne towards me by the wind. A hundred yards on lay 

 the ptti\il. It was so covered with sand, it had been so remorselessly 

 tossed about by the breakers, and its plumage was so soaked, that I 

 despaired of ever being able to skin it : but after careful drying it 

 turned out a much better specimen than could have been expected. This 

 bird was blind of one eye; perhaps it was because it could not see what 

 it was eating that I found in its gizzard a small portion of a newspaper. 

 It must have been a remarkably literary bird to take that on purpose. 



Besides these, I have had eleven Fulmar petrels, principally York- 

 shire specimens, and I must say that not in any bird have I seen 

 greater variation in size of beak and in weight. The biggest pulled 

 the scale down at 26oz., while the smallest weighed only 14oz. This 

 is a discrepancy more than sufficient for a species-monger to coin a 

 new species out of ; but of course much depends on the condition the 

 birds are in. The majority obtained in England are diseased, the 

 healthy ones keep out to sea, and the weak are blown in by gales 

 which they have not strength left to contend against. If the snow- 

 white head and neck be the sign of the adult plumage, as is generally 

 supposed, my oldest example had the smallest beak. 



I hope that Mr. Clarke will make a thorough work of his " Birds 

 of Y'orkshire." When so many counties have had excellent ornitho- 

 logies written of them, and Norfolk in particular has had a work to 

 be proud of, though not yet completed, it does seem very remarkable 

 that no one should have come forward to do the same for the largest 

 county in England ; and I hope Mr. Clarke will receive all the 

 assistance he deserves in his efi'orts. 



Northrepps, Norwich., Nov. 4th, 1879. 



