90 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



souls. And so far as I know the bird is as much prized 

 and as largely sought after by the St. Kildans as ever, and 

 I know of no evidence in favour of its having multiplied 

 there bej'ond its usual numbers within recent times. But 

 there is indeed no proof that the colonies of Fulmars 

 which are now established in Shetland have ever come 

 from St. Kilda. Is it not equally likely that they may 

 be offshoots from the vast colonies of this bird which 

 people Iceland, Spitzbergen, and other places in the far 

 North, and that what we are witnessing is a southern 

 extension of the breeding range of this species ? If this 

 be so, it is at least a reasonable conjecture that a climatal 

 change in the direction of greater coldness and retardation 

 of the springs may be in course of progress, and that this 

 is at the bottom of the phenomenon we are considering. 

 It is not a very comfortable reflection that our climate 

 may possibly be getting colder, but the evidence in favour 

 of it, which the spread of the Fulmar suggests, is not 

 altogether confined to that bird. There are certain other 

 northern breeding birds which have only been discovered 

 to breed in the northern parts of our islands within com- 

 paratively recent times, and which appear to be now on 

 the increase. The Snow Bunting (Plectra phenax nivalis) 

 is a case in point. First discovered to be nesting in Unst 

 by Saxby in the 3-ear 1861, it has since been found to 

 breed on several of the higher Scotch mountains, and 

 though it may very probably have bred in those regions 

 years before the actual discovery of the nest, there seems 

 no doubt that the species is now on the increase there. 

 Some of the northern breeding Ducks again, such as the 

 common Scoter (Fuligula nigra), and the Goosander 

 (Mergus merganser'), which have for many years past been 

 known to breed sparingly in the Highlands, chiefly in 

 Sutherland and Caithness, appear to be on the increase 



