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90 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
a most flagitious action, and worthy of a monster only. Tliey extract
the meat out of the shell, and leave that quite empty in the
nest ; the gull sits ui)on it till she pines away. They call it
Tuliac in St Kilda, but in the other western isles it goes under a
diflferent name" (Fasgadair).
Richardson's skua, or arctic gull.
Lat'm—Lesti-is liichardsoni. Gaelic—Fasr/adair. Welsh—Gwli/cni
y Gorjledd.
FULMAR PETREL.
h^Wn—Procellaria glacialis. Gaelic—Fubnaire, Fahnaire. Welsh
Gwylan y grau/.
This is another inhabitant of St Kilda, but a very different
one from the Skua, and after the very bad character the latter got
from the rev. historian of St Kilda, it is pleasant to turn to the
good one he gives the Fulmar :— " Another sea-fowl highly
esteemed in this island is the Fulmar. 1 was not a little entertained
with the econiums they bestowed on this bird. 'Can the world,'
said one of the most sensible men in Hirta to me, 'exhibit a more
valuable commodity 1 The Fulmar furnishes oil for the lamp, down
for the bed, the most salubrious food, and the most efficacious
ointments for healing wounds, besides a thousand other virtues of
which he is possessed, which I have not time to enumerate. But,
to say all in one word, deprive us of the Fulmar, and St Kilda is
no more.' " The following account of the taking of the Fidmar
in St Kilda is given in sketches of St Kilda, by Lachlan Maclean
(|)ub. 1S38) :— " The young Fulmar is valued by the natives moi'e
than all the other tribes of ]>ir(ls taken together ; it may be said
to be their stati" of life ; they therefore never meddle -with the egg.
The twelfth of August, if a notable day on the moors, is more so
on the rocks of St Kilda. A day or two before every rope is
tested, every oil-dish cleaned, .and every barrel emptied. Some
of these ropes are older than their owners, and are chiefly made of
thongs from cow-hide, salted and twisted into a cable. The
twelfth arrives, the rope is made fast round the waists of the
lieavier party, whilst the other and lighter party is let down the
perpendicular rock several liundred feet. Here the work of
destruction goes on night and day for a given space ; the St Kilda
man has nothing to do but take the young Fulmar, wring his neck,
and then suspend him ])y a gii-th he wears I'ound his loins. This
is the harvest of the peo])le of St Kilda. They are aware it is to
last only eight days, and therefore sleep itself is banished for tliis
space. The number killed in this one week may be from eighteen
—