the name of several species of petrels. The common northern fulmar inhabits the northern seas and is found plentifully on the shores of the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, on the southern shores of Great Britain and around Saint Kilda. It is about the size of a duck, is gray above and white beneath, with snow-white head, neck and tail. The birds are especially valuable for their feathers and also for their oil, which forms an important commercial product. Fulmars are caught by hunters, who make perilous descents by ropes from the summit of precipices. The giant fulmar, remarkable for its size, is found in the Pacific Ocean. Another species, the slender-billed fulmar, is found on the Alaskan coast of Bering Sea. See PETREL.