27G 
THE NORTIIEnN FULMAR. 
malia and birds. The order is of universal distribution on the seas, 
many also frequenting fresh water, and even the species extend to 
vast distances. Enlivening the monotony of the vast expanse, they 
occasionally cheer the mariner, and afford the wearied passenger to 
distant lands a little of that amusement which he longs for, but which 
the deep yields in profusion only to the naturalist, and not always 
even to him. Without them the coasts would often seem lifeless ; 
and when busy crowds of them are in pursuit of shoals of fishes, or 
searching the estuaries, they give an animation to th-e scene which 
contrasts with the effect caused by their absence. Peculiarly erratic, 
they settle for a time only to rear their young, after which they 
disperse ; yet some are to be seen at every season, in almost CA'ery 
climate — on the barren shores of Iceland, the picturesque coasts of 
Greece, the luxuriantly wooded bays of the Indian islands, amid the 
floating ice of Nootka Sound, and on the sunny bosom of the Pacific 
Ocean. 
Petrels, &c. 
The first family of the mersatorial birds consists of the 
Procellarince — Petrels and allied species. Some of these 
are of gigantic, others of diminutive sizes ; they are all 
•wanderers over the face of the ocean ; the mariner meets 
them hundreds of miles away from any shore, seeking their 
subsistence among the varied substances floating there, or 
the fishes and other animals that come within reach, dip- 
ping and plunging into the water, but never diving in 
pursuit of prey ; and he fancies that they must really 
breed and nestle, and for ever dAvell on the ocean, on whose 
surface they appear to walk with far more ease and facility 
than he does on land. Light as the foam flakes, they skim 
along the emerald valleys and over the golden ridges of the 
sun-lighted billows; and when the driving mist and the black 
shadows cover the waters, and the risinggale, rushing through 
the rigging, with a shrill whistle proclaims the coming storm, 
these birds seem then most busy and joyous, uttering their 
wild cries, and spreading their white pinions, appearing 
and disappearing between the waves, like spirits of the deep. 
The Northern Fulmar {Fulmarus glacialls) ; the 
Fulmar, Mallemoke. — The common Fulmar of the 
Northern Atlantic is a stout bird, not unlike a Gull in ap- 
pearance, with a moderately full body, and rather largo 
