FULMAR. 
3 
considerably after death ; in a few years the various portions of the beak, with the exce})tion of the points 
of both upper and lower mandibles, become somewhat contracted. Point of lower mandible lemon- 
yellow, the upper ridge lemon and the lower a pale grey. Legs, toes, and Avebs a pale silvery grey, 
the scales being finely marked out w’ith a slightly darker shade ; the nails white. The description of 
the beak of the dark grey bird found on the shore of the Firth of Forth, and noted doAvn at the time, 
corresponds in almost every particular with those of the birds in the same plumage met with on the 
Norfolk coast : — Points of upper and lower mandibles pale yellow, remaining portions of both pale dull 
grey ; the ridge or tube on tlie upper mandible a pale brownish horn, slightly darker in some specimens. A 
little pale pink flesh veined with red showing round the gape; inside of mouth a pale flesh. Legs, webs, and 
toes pale silvery grey; nails very pale horn. Iris dark hazel. 
It is, I believe, generally allowed that the dark-coloured birds are smaller than those with white 
heads and breasts. An exceedingly dingy-coloured individual that I picked up, floating at sea, about 
twenty-five miles off the land, on November the 8th, 1879, is, however, considerably the largest specimen that 
has come under my notice, the beak being also especially bulky. 
The figures in the Plate, showing the light and dark stages or forms, are taken from the birds obtained 
in the North Sea, off Yarmouth, on the 8th of November, 1879. As previously stated, the former was shot 
and the latter picked up while floating dead on the water. 
