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NOTE ON THE SPREAD OF THE FULMAR 



(Fulmar us glacialis). 



By J. WlGLESWORTH, M.D. 



[Eead December 14th, 1900.] 



It is but a short time ago — less indeed than a quarter of 

 a century — since the only known breeding station for 

 the Fulmar Petrel in the British islands was the island 

 group of St. Kilda, where, however, as is well known, it 

 breeds in enormous numbers, and constitutes a valuable 

 source of profit to the natives of that remote locality. 



In June, 1878, however, a small colony of these birds 

 established itself on the precipices of Foula, the most 

 remote and inaccessible island of the Shetland group, and 

 the birds have now become fairly plentiful there. 

 Additional colonies have since been established in Shet- 

 land — on the island of Papa Stour and at Eshaness on the 

 west coast of the mainland, on the cliffs of Hermaness 

 and Saxaford in the island of Unst in the extreme north, 

 and on the Noup of Noss on the east. The above 

 particulars, which I have extracted from the recently 

 published " Vertebrate Fauna of the Shetland Islands/' 

 by Buckley and Evans, I am able to supplement from my 

 personal observations, as last year (1899) I had the 

 pleasure of visiting the breeding station of this bird on 

 the cliffs of Hermaness in the island of Unst in the 

 extreme north of Shetland, a few details of which may 

 perhaps prove of interest. It is not known when the 

 Fulmar first established itself on Hermaness, but it may 

 be taken as certain that the bird did not breed there in 

 Saxby's time. When I first visited that locality in the 

 summer of 1895, whilst rowing round the skerries and 

 cliffs on the northern part of the island, I saw a few 



