404 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
A third cause. How far these causes may have been 
accelerated by another is more difficult to gauge. But quite in 
recent years the results of an abnormal loosening of Arctic ice 
and the far drifting southwards of the caved-off icebergs may 
perhaps be guessed at by a careful study of the series of the 
U.S. American Ice-charts. We need not lay too much stress 
upon the undoubted facts, so well known to those who “ go 
down to the sea in ships,’’ and who cross and recross the North 
Atlantic between Europe and the continent of America, whether 
by the ‘‘north-about”’ or the ‘‘ south-about’’ routes, but we 
consider it is worthy of mention asa possible influence. Such 
natural developments can scarcely fail to produce effects upon 
the habits and distribution of even such an ocean-loving bird as 
the Fulmar, though it may not always be easy to define the 
direct action. And itis worthy further of mention in the con- 
nection that such influences upon the migration of Seals has 
been very distinctly observed upon the Newfoundland coast, and 
especially in the Sound of Belleisle between Newfoundland and 
Labrador, and which has been commented upon during at least 
one year of the last decade, when the Seal fishery usually con- 
ducted at the time of the annual migration of these animals 
northward proved a complete failure; and as we write it may 
be stated again there has been a failure in the Seal fishery off 
the Banks for similar reasons in 1911. The further extension 
of the oceanic dispersal on the western side of the North Atlantic 
may have been simultaneous with or dependent upon the ab- 
normal southerly drift (or “‘ migration’’) of the Arctic icebergs, 
which have been shown in recent years to reach southward to 
45° N. lat. on the European side, and to 41° or further south on 
the American side. 
Of the oceanic space covered by the flight of the multitudes 
of these birds—z. e. the species of North Atlantic Fulmar Petrel 
—Linneus gives early indication, though he did not appear to 
have been aware of the St. Kilda colony. He simply writes of 
its general range: “‘ Habitat in Mari glaciali, s. intra tropicum 
arcticum, Nidificat in Gronlandia, Spitzberga,”’ &c. It is true, 
however, that Brisson was aware of the St. Kilda colony, 
and Linnzus quotes the reference and the authority in turn, 
for Brisson’s statement is no doubt simply an adaptation from 
