FULMAR, or FULMAR PETREL, Procellaria or Fulmaru. a genus of birds generally referred to the gull family (larick), and containing some GI the most strictly oceanic birds. See PETREL. The bill is not longer than the head—large, strong, and subcylin• drical; the upper mandible suddenly hooked at the point; the lower mandible with the tip curved upwards; the tips of both mandibles appearing as separate pieces firmly joined to the straight part of the bill, which is marked by longitudinal grooves; the nostrils inclosed in a tube open at the extremity, and extending along the ridge of the upper mandible. The tarsi are compressed; the hind-toe rudimentary, a mere claw. The tail is short, and slightly rounded; the wings are long. The COMMON or NORTHERN F. (P. or F. glacialis) is a bird about the size of a duck, gray above, white beneath, the head and neck pure white, the tail white, the bill yellow; the young brownish gray. It inhabits the most northern seas, in which its numbers are prodigious; breeds on the rocky shores of the Faroe islands, Iceland. Greenland, Spitzhergen, etc., on the grassy shelves of the precipices, making a slight nest or a mere excavation, in which it lays one egg. It is rarely to be seen on the southern coasts of Britain, but more frequently in Orkney and Shetland, where however, it is said never to breed, although it breeds is great numbers in St. Kilda and the adjacent islets of Borrera and Soa. It greatly frequents these isles, and is of importance to the inhabitants of St. Kilda, who esteem its eggs and flesh above those of any other bird, and seek them in the most perilous manner, descending by ropes from the surnmit.of the precipices. Tile fulmars are also
valued for their feathers, for down, and for their oil, which is one of the principal products of St. Kilda, and is obtained from their stomachs. The old are said to feed the young with it; and when they are caught or assailed, generally lighten themselves by disgorging it. It is amber-colored, and has a peculiar and very disagreeable odor. Fulmars feed on all animal substances which come in their way, giving an evident prefer ence to fat, and delighting in the blubber of whales. They pursue whalds to prey on the cirrhopods which are attached to them, or imbedded in their skin. Multitudes of them soon gather around a dead whale, and they are so bold as to advance within a few yards of the men who are cutting it up. When food is abundant, they often glut them selves till they are unable to fiy. They follow the greasy track of a whaler, and, indeed, some of them are always in attendance on ships immediately after they pa..s north of the Shetland islands, ready to seize any garbage that maybe thrown over board. Sailor boys often amuse themselves in catching them by means of lines and hooks baited with fat.
Another species of F. (P. or F. Pacifica) exists in the Pacific ocean, and the MOTHER CAREY'S GOOSE of sailors, a large bird of the southern seas, is sometimes referred to the same genus. '