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FULMAR

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 299 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FULMAR , from the Gaelic Fulmaire, the Fulmarus glacialis of See also:

modern ornithologists, one of the largest of the petrels (Procellariidae) of the See also:northern hemisphere, being about the See also:size of the See also:common See also:gull (Larus canus) and not unlike it in See also:general coloration, except that its primaries are See also:grey instead of See also:black. This See also:bird, which ranges over the See also:North See also:Atlantic, is seldom seen on the See also:European See also:side below See also:lat. 530 N., but on the See also:American side comes habitually to lat. 45°or even See also:lower. In the Pacific it is represented by a scarcely separable See also:form, F. glupischa. It has been commonly believed to have two breeding-places in the See also:British Islands, namely, St Kilda and See also:South See also:Barra; but, according to See also:Robert See also:Gray (Birds of the See also:West of See also:Scotland, p. 499), it has abandoned the latter since 1844, though still breeding in See also:Skye. Northward it established itself about 1838 on Myggenaes Holm, one of the Faeroes, while it has several stations off the See also:coast of See also:Iceland and See also:Spitsbergen, as well as at See also:Bear See also:Island. Its range towards the See also:pole seems to be only bounded by open See also:water, and it is the See also:constant attendant upon all who are employed in the See also:whale and See also:seal See also:fisheries, showing the greatest boldness in approaching boats and See also:ships, and feeding on the See also:offal obtained from them. By British See also:seamen it is commonly called the " molly mawk "1 (corrupted fromMallemuck),and is extremely well known to them, its See also:flight, as it skims over the waves, first with a few beats of the wings and then gliding for a See also:long way, being very See also:peculiar. It only visits the See also:land to See also:deposit its single See also:white See also:egg, which is laid on a rocky ledge, where a shallow See also:nest is made in the See also:turf and lined with a little dried grass. Many of its breeding-places are a most valuable See also:property to those who live near them and take the eggs and See also:young, which, from the nature of the locality, are only to be had at a hazardous See also:risk of See also:life.

In St Kilda a large number of the young are killed in one See also:

week of See also:August, the only See also:time when, by the See also:custom of the community, they are allowed to be taken. These, after the oil is extracted from them, serve the islanders with See also:food for the See also:winter. The oil has been chemically analysed and found to be a See also:fish-oil, and to possess nearly all the qualities of that obtained from the See also:liver of the See also:cod, with a lighter specific gravity. It, however, has an extremely strong See also:scent, which is said by those who have visited St Kilda to pervade every thing and See also:person on the island, and is certainly retained by an egg or skin of the bird for many years. Whenever a live example is seized in the See also:hand it ejects a considerable quantity of this oil from its mouth.

End of Article: FULMAR

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