PROCELLARIA GLACIALIS, Linn. 
Fulmar. 
Procellaria glacialis, Linn, Faun. Suec., p. 51. 
Fidmaris glacialis, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xhi. p. 234, pi, 27. 
Procellaria hiemalis, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 800. 
Rhantistes glacialis, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 105. 
Pennant remarks that no bird is of so much use to the islanders of St. Kilda as the Fulmar Petrel; 
for it supplies oil for their lamps, down for their beds, a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their 
wounds, and a medicine for their distempers. Besides being abundant in this great nursery, the Fulmar 
occasionally occurs all round the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as the seas of the Arctic 
regions generally, especially those of Hudson’s Bay, Davis’s Straits, and Baffin’s Bay. It is also to 
be found in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Spitsbergen, Greenland, and Norway, and occasionally on the 
coasts of Holland and France ; and Audubon states that it extends along the eastern side of America as far 
south as Long Island. To me, the most interesting account of the bird and its habits, the manner of its 
capture, and the uses to which it is applied by the St.-Kildians is that furnished by Mr. John Macgillivray 
to his father, from actual inspection, in 1840, a part of which I take the liberty of transcribing. 
“ St. Kilda has long been noted as the only breeding-place in Britain of the Fulmar Petrel. It exists 
there in almost Incredible numbers, and to the natives is hy far the most important of the productions of 
the island. It forms one of the principal means of support to the Inhabitants, who daily risk their lives in 
its pursuit. The Fulmar breeds on the face of the highest precipices, and only on such as are furnished 
with small grassy shelves, every spot on which, above a few inches in extent, is occupied by one or more 
of its nests. The nest is formed of herbage, seldom bulky, generally a mere shallow excavation in the turf, 
lined with dried grass and the withered tufts of the sea-pink, in which the bird deposits a single egg, of a 
pure white when clean, which is seldom the case, and varying in size from 2 inches 7 lines to 3 Inches In- 
line in length, and 1 inch 11 lines to 2 inches in breadth. On the 30th of June (having partially descended 
a nearly perpendicular precipice 600 feet in height, the whole face of which was covered with the nests of 
the Fulmar) I enjoyed an opportunity of observing the habits of this bird, which has fallen to the lot 
of few of those who have described them as if from personal observation. The nests had all been robbed 
about a month before by the natives, who esteem the egg of this species above all others — those of the 
Auk, Guillemot, Kittiwake, and Puffin ranking next, and the Gannet, Scart, and Cormorant last of all. 
Many of the nests contained each a young bird, a day or two old at furthest, thickly covered with long 
white down. They were very clamorous on being handled, and vomited a quantity of clear oil, with 
which I sometimes observed the parent birds feeding them by disgorging it. The Fulmar is stated, in 
most works of ornithology, to possess the power of ejecting oil with much force through its tubular nostrils, 
as a means of defence ; but although I surprised several upon the nest, I never observed them to do 
so. On being seized they instantly mmit a quantity of clear amber-coloured oil, which Imparts to 
the whole bird, its nest and young, and even the very rock it frequents, a peculiar and very disagreeable 
odour. Fulmar oil is amongst the most valuable productions of St. Kilda, and is procured of two kinds by 
different processes. The best is obtained from the old bird by surprising it at night upon the rock, and 
tightly closing the bill until the fowler has secured the bird between his knees vvith the head downwards. 
By opening the bill the Fulmar is allowed to disgorge about a table-spoonfull of the oil into the dried gullet 
and stomach of the Solan Goose, used as a reservoir for that purpose. These, when filled, are secured with 
a string, and hung on cords across the interior of the huts until required for use. The oil thus procured 
and preserved, besides supplying their lamps, is used by the inhabitants as a medicine, being sometimes of 
considerable efficacy in chronic rheumatism, and acting as a cathartic ; while, from its nauseous taste and 
smell, it would doubtless prove an effectual emetic also to any but a St.-Kildian. In the beginning of 
August the natives descend the rocks for the young Fulmars, which are then nearly fledged, and, by boiling 
with water, in proper vessels, are made to furnish a large quantity of fat, which is skimmed off, and pre- 
served in casks in the solid form. Tim old Fulmar is much esteemed as food by the St.-Kildians, prin- 
cipally on account of its subcutaneous covering of fat, a substance of which they are immoderately fond. 
“The Fulmar flies with great buoyancy and considerable rapidity, and when at sea is generally seen 
skimming along the surface of the waves at a slight elevation, though I never observed one to alight on or 
pick up any thing from the water. Several which I dissected had the stomach filled with pure oil, mixed 
up with the indigestible horny mandibles of some of tbe Sepiadse, which, we may conclude, form their 
})rincipal food. It is partially a nocturnal bird ; for I seldom observed it at any distance from St. Kilda, 
