388 PETRELS AND SHEARWATERS 



[431 mm.]. The back, wings, and tail are of a dark silvery grey, the rest of the 

 plumage being white. The iris is dark brown, the bill bluish yellow, mottled and 

 streaked with darker patches. Legs and toes pale flesh-coloured. The juvenile 

 dress is like that of the adult. The young in down is of a dull greyish white, 

 [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. The wonderful increase in the number of breeding-stations 

 and range of this species in the British Isles has been the subject of recent papers 

 by Dr. Harvie-Brown in the Scottish Naturalist, 1912, pp. 97 and 121. Cf. also 

 Zoologist, 1912, pp. 381 and 401. From these it appears that the oldest British 

 station is that at St. Kilda, which is known to have flourished for two hundred and 

 fifty years. In the Shetlands they were first recorded at Foula in 1878, spreading 

 to Papa Stour hi 1891, and gradually colonising the west and finally the east coast 

 cliffs of the group. At N. Rona one was seen in 1886, and in 1887 they were fairly 

 numerous here, and also at Sulisgeir, but of course in nothing like the numbers seen 

 in 1910. At the Flannans they were seen in 1881, and certainly bred in 1902. One 

 was seen at Stack and Skerry in 1889, and from 1900 onwards it has been found 

 breeding on the Orkneys, first occupying the west coast, but since 1911 on east coast 

 stacks also. The Clomore cliffs on the mainland have probably been used since 1897, 

 and Dunnet Head since 1900. At Barra Head it appeared in 1899, and certainly 

 bred in 1902, in which year they also occupied a site on Handa, and probably about 

 this time colonised Fair Island. Lastly the Shiants (1910) and Berriedale Head, 

 Caithness (1911). In Ireland it was first found breeding in 1911 on the North 

 Mayo coast, and in the same year also in Co. Donegal (Irish Naturalist, 1911, 

 p. 149 ; 1912, p. 180). Outside the British Isles it is plentiful at the Faeroes (1838-9) 

 and at many stations round the coasts of Iceland and in the Spitsbergen archipelago, 

 as well as on Jan Mayen, and the north island of Novaya Zemlya. There is no reli- 

 able evidence of breeding on the Norwegian coast, but it nests in Greenland and on 

 the west side of Davis Strait and Baffin's Bay, and in the North Pacific is replaced 

 by allied forms. In whiter it ranges south to lat. 43 in Europe, and Massachusetts 

 and Maine hi N. America (Saunders). [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor for breeding purposes to the northern 

 isles and mainland of Scotland (see preceding paragraph). Otherwise the species 

 is seldom seen near land, but may be found generally distributed hi British seas, 

 especially during the autumn and winter months. On the south and west coasts 

 of England the fulmar is seldom recorded except in the colder months, and then 

 chiefly after stormy weather : it is by no means infrequent on the fishing-grounds 



