OSSIFBAGA GIG-ANTE A. 
GIGANTIC FULMAR. 
PROCELLARIA GIGANTEA, Gmel„ Syst. Nat. Vol. I, (1788), p. 568. Id. Lawr., B. of N- Ataer., p. 825, 
OSSIFRAGA GIGANTEA. Eon., Consp, Av., Yol. II p. 186. 
Among the Procellavidae or Petrels are found the largest as well as the smallest of the inhabitants of the ocean. The great 
Albatross with its immense expanse of wing, sails majestically on tireless pinions over the wide seas that cover with their restless 
waters the larger portion of the globe, while the little Mother Carey’s Chicken, light as the spray, is often seen sporting with 
the tempest, and seeking its food hundreds of miles from any shore. 
The Gigantic Fulmar is a true Petrel, although, from its great size, it is often mistaken for an Albatross, as it gracefully sweeps 
over the waves. 
It is a native of the Pacific Ocean, and has been seen on our coast off the mouth of the Columbia River. It is strictly a 
marine bird, and rarely approaches the shore, except for the purpose of nidiftcatiou, subsisting upon fish, or any refuse which it 
may find floating upon the surface. The great power of flight possessed by this species, would readily enable it to perform the 
circuit of the globe, and, as it obtains its food from the sea, it doubtless does protract its wanderings over many different oceans. 
The following account of this bird is taken from Gould's “Birds of Australia”; “An Albino variety of this species followed 
the vessel for three weeks while we were running down our longitude between the Cape of Good Hope and Van Diemcu’s Land, 
the ship often making nearly two hundred miles during the twenty-four hours ; it must not, however, lie understood that the bird 
was merely following the vessel's speed, nor deemed incredible wheu 1 state that, during the twenty-four hours, it must have 
performed the enormous distance of nearly two thousand miles, since it was only at intervals of perhaps half an hour that it was 
seen, hunting up the wake of the vessel for the distance of a mile to secure any offal, &c., that had been thrown overboard, the 
interim being employed in scanning the ocean in immense circles of at least twenty miles, at a speed of eighty or a hundred miles 
an hour.” 
Capt. F. W. Hutton, in his account of the “'Birds inhabiting the Southern Ocean,” published in the “Ibis” for 1865, p. 284, 
says that “ this bird breeds in the cliffs of the Prince Edward Islands and Kerguelen’s Land, but the nests can be got at occasionally, 
The young are at first covered with a beautiful long, light-grey down ; when fledged they are dark brown, mottled with white. When 
a person approaches the nest, the old bird keeps a short distance away, while the young ones squirt a horridly smelling oil out 
of their mouths to a distance of six or eight feet. It is very voracious, hoveriug over the sealers when engaged cutting up a 
seal, and devouring the carcass the moment it is left — a thing the Albatross never does. It is the ‘Mother Carey’s Goose of 
Cook, and the ‘Nelly’ of sailors.” 
The entire plumage of this Petrel is a dark, chocolate brown. Bill, light horn-color. Bides, very dark brown. Feet and legs, 
brown. 
