Fulmar

fulmar Fulmarus glacialis, a cliff-dwelling, gull-like bird of northern seas and coasts; it belongs to a group of seabirds commonly known as petrels and shearwaters.

Francesca Greenoak (1979) remarks that:

The most famous Fulmars are those of the island of St Kilda, where they have probably lived and been hunted for nearly a thousand years. The ornithologist William MacGillivray visiting the island in 1840 reported that the Fulmar ‘forms one of the principal means of support to the islands, who daily risk their lives in its pursuit.’ There is, however, strong evidence to show that the present great Fulmar spread is not of St Kildan birds, but a population overspill from Iceland.