fulmar1 (fulmar)

[ in allusion to analogous characteristics of the polecat: see fulmar. The Gael. name fulmair and the NL. generic name Fulmar us are taken from the E.] A natatorial oceanic bird of the family Procellariidæ and genus Fulmar us or some closely related genus; the fulmar petrel. The common fulmar is Fulmar us glacial is, a bird as large as a medium-sized gull, and greatly resembling a herring gull in coloration, being white with a pearl-blue mantle and black tips on the primaries, but distinguished by the long tubular nostrils, which lie high upon the ridge of the Fulmar Petrel ( Fulmar us glacial is ). upper mandible. It inhabits the northern seas in prodigious numbers, breeding in Iceland, Green land, Spitz bergen, the Shetland and Orkney islands, the He brides, etc. It feeds on fish, the blubber of whales, and any fat, putrid, floating substance that comes in its way. It makes its nest on sea-cliffs, and lays only one egg. The natives of the island of St. Kilda, in the He brides, value the eggs above those of any other bird, and search for them by the most perilous descent of precipices by means of ropes. The fulmar is also valued for its feathers, its down, and the oil found in its stomach, which is one of the principal products of St. Kilda. When caught or a ailed, it lightens itself by disgorging the oil from its stomach. There are several closely related species or varieties in the North Pa cific. The slender-billed fulmar is Fulmar us tenuirostris or Thala oica glacialoides, widely dispersed over the seas. The giant fulmar, O ifraga gigantea, also called bone breaker, is a sooty-brown or fuliginous species, as large as a small albatro .