Fulmar
Fulmarus glacialis
[Linnaeus, 1761]
[Linnaeus, 1761]
A nice, simple meaning today, grapple-fans.
Our fulmar (petrel) is another member of the Procellariidae family (for us Brits basically the shearwaters and fulmar).
It is famous (infamous really) for covering any person daft (or unfortunate) enough to wander closely to its nest site of choice, with a thick, gloopy, foul-smelling stomach oil.
This stinking liquid wax or stomach oil has the same chemical make-up as the sperm whale's oil (see link) and gave the fulmar a particularly errr.... ripe reputation - and this was not forgotten when it became time to give the bird a scientific name.
Fulmar is derived from old Norse - Ful meaning "foul" (smelling) and mar meaning "gull"
Glacialis on the other hand is more classical in origin - and is Latin for "icy" (we can assume this means a white bird of the north in this case).
SOoooo.... the fulmar (petrel) has a scientific name which literally means:
Our fulmar (petrel) is another member of the Procellariidae family (for us Brits basically the shearwaters and fulmar).
It is famous (infamous really) for covering any person daft (or unfortunate) enough to wander closely to its nest site of choice, with a thick, gloopy, foul-smelling stomach oil.
This stinking liquid wax or stomach oil has the same chemical make-up as the sperm whale's oil (see link) and gave the fulmar a particularly errr.... ripe reputation - and this was not forgotten when it became time to give the bird a scientific name.
Fulmar is derived from old Norse - Ful meaning "foul" (smelling) and mar meaning "gull"
Glacialis on the other hand is more classical in origin - and is Latin for "icy" (we can assume this means a white bird of the north in this case).
SOoooo.... the fulmar (petrel) has a scientific name which literally means:
"Icy, foul gull".
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