88 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



safety of the egg, which would run no risk of rolling off, 

 as it would do if the surface on which it was laid were 

 perfectly smooth and bare, after the fashion of the Guille- 

 mot's nesting ledge, the egg of the Fulmar not having the 

 protective shape of that of the Guillemot to prevent it 

 from rolling. 



•J. MacGillivray, who visited St. Kilda in 1840, states 

 that whilst the Fulmar breeds on the face of the highest 

 precipices, it only does so on such as are furnished with 

 small grassy shelves ; and Dixon, who visited the same 

 locality some fifteen years back, in part confirms this, for 

 he states that whilst the bird also bred on bare ledges, its 

 favourite nesting sites were portions of cliff where a good 

 layer of turf-clad soil was present, adding that the bird 

 appeared to prefer to burrow a short distance into the 

 ground whenever possible. The observations I have just 

 given from Hermaness show, however, that the birds take 

 quite as readily to perfectly bare open ledges as to those 

 covered with turfy soil. 



All the eggs taken on that date (May 26th) were 

 perfectly fresh and clean, so that the birds had apparently 

 just started laying. 



In addition to the localities already given in the Shet- 

 lands, I am able to add another from my experience of 

 last summer (1900) in the extreme south-west of that 

 group ; for in June last, whilst rowing round the cliffs in 

 the neighbourhood of Fitful Head, three or four of these 

 birds flew round my boat for some little time. Although 

 I was not able to detect any sitting birds on the cliffs, I 

 feel very little doubt from my experience of other 

 localities that they were nesting there. 



The facts I have just given point to a very considerable 

 and very remarkable extension of the breeding range of 

 this bird within the last quarter of a century, and it is a 



