SPREAD OF THE FULMAR. 91 



as breeding species, though the possibility in these cases 

 of the increase being due, in part at any rate, to additional 

 even if unintentional protection afforded, must not be lost 

 sight of. 



There is some little evidence also in favour of the 

 theory here suggested from another standpoint. There 

 appears to be a fairly general belief in Shetland amongst 

 shepherds and others that the springs are now colder than 

 used to be the case. Yague opinions of this sort are no 

 doubt seldom trustworthy, but I have spoken to intelli- 

 gent shepherds, on Noss for instance, who have informed 

 me that it no longer paid to keep sheep as formerly, as 

 owing to the coldness of the springs, the grass was so late 

 in appearing that there was not enough food for the 

 lambs. Without attaching too much importance to it, 

 this opinion is, I think, worth recording, for so far as it 

 goes it tends to confirm the theory I have put forward as 

 to a climatal change being at the bottom of the extension 

 of the breeding range of such birds as the Fulmar and the 

 Snow Bunting. 



I do not wish for a moment to be understood as con- 

 sidering that this theory is in any way proved, for the 

 evidence is at best but fragmentary, and the facts may 

 admit of a wholly different interpretation ; but there is 

 at least the possibility that it may be true, and that the 

 spread of the Fulmar may be one of the first evidences 

 of the change. 



