Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0075/00751.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 13KB | 203 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00751}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The Common Fulmar}
$Subject{Procellarinae; Procellaria; Fulmarus; glacialis; Common Fulmar;
Northern Fulmar}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume VII}
$Volume{Vol. 7:204-208}
$Family{Procellarinae}
$Genus{Procellaria; Fulmarus}
$Species{glacialis}
$Common_Name{Common Fulmar; Northern Fulmar}
$Log{
Plate CCCCLV*00751P1.scf
Family*00740.txt
Genus*00749.txt
}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  VII.
                        --------------------------------


                               THE COMMON FULMAR.
                               [Northern Fulmar.]


                          PROCELLARIA GLACIALIS, Linn.
                             [Fulmarus glacialis.]


                              PLATE CCCCLV.--MALE.


     Though not a large bird, the Fulmar is possessed of considerable strength,
and has a powerful and sustained flight.  In autumn and winter it is seen on our
eastern coasts, from which it retires early in summer, to betake itself to the
northern retreats in which it rears its young.  I have never seen it farther
south than Long Island, but I have often found it on the banks of Newfoundland,
and in the space intervening between them and our shores.  From the beginning of
September to that of May it may be said to be pretty common, especially around
the banks, to which the cod-fishers resort, and where it feeds chiefly on the
rejected garbage.
     One calm day in August, when on a voyage from England to New York, I
procured several Fulmars.  They came up and alighted near the boat, whenever we
threw any thing overboard, and did not seem to be in the least alarmed by the
report of a gun.  In one instance I shot one on the water, when it was so near
that I could distinctly see the colour of its eye.  A great number of them were
swimming in small detached flocks of eight or ten, their colour at a distance
appearing as if pure white, and contrasting beautifully with the dark blue of
the sea.  They floated very buoyantly, some swimming about with great ease,
others to appearance sound asleep.  Most of them had the wing and tail feathers
ragged, and some were much soiled with greasy matter, which gave them an
unpleasant appearance.  Those which were caught, on being wounded, emitted
quantities of oily matter by their nostrils, and disgorged much of the same
substance; but did not attempt to bite, which seemed strange in birds having the
bill so powerful and hooked.  They fly with less grace than the Shearwaters,
proceeding in a direct line, and at a small height, towards the objects on which
they feed.
     I was much disappointed at not finding the Fulmar along the rocky shores of
Labrador, where I had expected to meet with it, as it is regularly observed in
spring moving northward in files opposite the entrance of the Straits of Belle
Isle.  Its passage towards the Arctic Regions has been observed by Captain
SABINE on the coast of Greenland.  "Whilst the ships," he says, "were detained
by the ice in Jacob's Bay, in latitude 71 degrees, from the 24th of June to the
3d of July, Fulmars were passing in a continual stream to the northward, in
numbers inferior only to the flight of the Passenger Pigeon in America."  While
on my way to Labrador, I was told that they bred on the Seal Islands off the
entrance of the Bay of Fundy.  The egg, which is of a regular ovate form, with a
smooth brittle pure white shell, measures two inches and seven-eighths in
length, by two inches in breadth.
     My much esteemed friend Mr. SELBY, in his Illustrations of British
Ornithology, gives the following account of this species.  "The steep and rocky
St. Kilda, one of the western islands of Scotland, is the only locality within
the British dominions annually resorted to by the Fulmar, the rest of the
Scottish and our more southern coasts being rarely visited even by stragglers.
Upon St. Kilda these birds are found in vast numbers during the spring and
summer months, breeding in the caverns and holes of the rocks; and, from the
various uses to which the down, feathers, and oil of the young are applied,
contribute essentially to the comfort of the inhabitants.  They lay but one egg
each, white, and of a large size, with a shell of very brittle texture.  The
young are hatched about the middle of June, and are fed with oil thrown up by
the parents (the produce of the food upon which they subsist), and, as soon as
fledged, are eagerly sought for by the natives, although often at the risk of
life, in scaling the tremendous and overhanging cliffs in which they nestle.
Like most of the group, these birds have the power of ejecting oil with much
force through their tubular nostrils, which is used as the principal mode of
defence; it becomes an essential point, therefore, that they should be taken and
killed by surprise, in order to prevent the loss of a liquid so requisite for
the comfort of the inhabitants, by supplying them with the necessary fuel for
their lamps.  The Fulmar is of voracious appetite, feeding upon all sorts of
animal substance, particularly of an oily nature, such as the blubber of whales,
seals, &c.; and for this purpose it follows in great numbers the track of the
whale vessels, and is so greedy of its favourite food, as to be often seen
alighting upon the wounded animal, when not quite dead, and immediately
proceeding to break the skin with its strong hooked bill, and gorging itself
with the blubber to repletion."
     The Rev. Mr. SCORESBY, in his "Arctic Regions," vol. i. p. 528, gives the
following account of its habits as observed by him in the polar seas.
     "The Fulmar is the constant companion of the whale-fisher.  It joins his
ship immediately on passing the Shetland Islands, and accompanies it through the
trackless ocean to the highest accessible latitudes.  It keeps an eager watch
for any thing thrown overboard; the smallest particle of fatty substance can
scarcely escape it.  As such, a hook baited with a piece of fat meat or blubber,
and towed by a long twine over the ship's stern, is a means employed by the
sailor boys for taking them.  In the spring of the year, before they have
glutted themselves too frequently with the fat of the whale, they may be eaten;
and when cleared of the skin, and of every particle of yellow fatty substance
lying beneath it, and well soaked in water, they are pretty good, particularly
in 'sea pies.'  They are remarkably easy and swift on the wing.  They can fly to
windward in the highest storms, and rest on the water with great composure in
the most tremendous seas.  But it is observed that, in heavy gales, they fly
extremely low, generally skimming along the surface of the water.  The Fulmar
walks awkwardly, and with the legs so bent that the feet almost touch the belly.
When on ice it rests with its body on the surface, and presents its breast to
the wind.  Like the Duck, it sometimes turns its head backward, and conceals its
bill beneath its wing.
     "Fulmars are extremely greedy of the fat of the whale.  Though few should
be seen when a whale is about being captured, yet, as soon as the flensing
process commences, they rush in from all quarters, and frequently accumulate to
many thousands in number.  They then occupy the greasy track of the ship; and,
being audaciously greedy, fearlessly advance within a few yards of the men
employed in cutting up the whale.  If, indeed, the fragments of fat do not float
sufficiently away, they approach so near the scene of operations, that they are
knocked down with boat hooks in great numbers, and sometimes taken up by the
hand.  The sea immediately about the ship's stern is sometimes so completely
covered with them, that a stone can scarcely be thrown overboard without
striking one of them.  When any thing is thus cast among them, tho