- p - a o x r n rr.-fuVR-CA. M M M D B g
OSS IFRAGA G- IGANTEA.
CICA N O T FFI . MAH.
PROCELLARIA GIGANTEA, Gmel., Syst. Nat. Vol. I, (1788), p. 563. Id. Lawr., B. of N. Amer., p. 825.
OSSIFRAGA GIGANTEA. Bon., Consp. Av., Vói. II, p. 186.
Among the Procellaridae 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 niouth of the Columbia River. It is strictly a
marine bird, and rarely approaches the shore, except for the purpose of nidification, 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 Aveeks while we were running down our longitude between the Cape of Good Hope and Van Diemen’s Land,
the ship often making nearly two hundred miles during the twenty-four hours; it must not, however, be understood that the bird
was merely following the vessel’s speed, nor deemed incredible when I state that, during the twenty-four hours, it must have
performed the enormous distance o f 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 iu 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; Avlien 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, hovering over the sealers when engaged cutting up a
seal, and devouriiig 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. Irides, very dark brown. Feet and legs,
brown.