In ' Martin's Voyage to St. Kilda,' published in 1698, is 
a curious account of the manners of this bird, with the pur- 
poses to which it is applied by the natives, he says, « the 
FuMAB, in bigness equals the Malls of the second rate ; its 
wings very long ; a bill two inches long, crooked and pro- 
minent at'the end, with wide nostrils in the middle of the 
bill ■ the upper mandible or jaw hangs over the lower on 
both sides and point; his feet pale, not very broad, with 
sharp toes and a back toe. He picks his food out of the 
backs of live whales, they say he uses sorrel with it, for 
both are found in its nest; he lays his first egg ordinarily 
the first, second, or third day of May, which is larger than 
than that of a Solan Goose egg, of a white colour, and very 
thin, the shell so very tender that it breaks in pieces ,f the 
season prove rainy. The inhabitants prefer this, whether 
young or old, to all other ; the old is of a delicate taste, 
being a mixture of fat and lean ; the young is all fat ex- 
cepting the bones. . 
When the young Fulmah is ready to take wing he 
being approached ejects a quantity of pure oil out of his bill, 
and will m«ke sure to hit any thing that attacks h.m in the 
face, but the inhabitants take care to prevent this by sur- 
prizing the fowl behind, having for this purpose a wooden 
dish fixed to the end of their rods, which they hold before 
his bill as he spouts out the oil. This oil is of a reddish 
colour, and the inhabitants put a great value upon it, and 
use it as a catholicon for diseases." 
This bird has many habits and propensities in common 
with the Gull tribe, it feeds on fish and oifal, and lives prin- 
cipally at sea. It forms its nest of sea-weed, in the crevice 
of a rock, and lays but one egg, which is very large in pro- 
portion to the size of the bird. , , , 
The inhabitants of the Orkney and Western Islands use 
the oil for culinary and medicinal purposes, and the bird is 
used as food. Tlie young are at first of a pale mouse colour, 
. but each year they become lighter, and in old birds the 
colour is little more than sullied white. 
