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EXTENDING RANGE OF THE FULMAR PETREL. 
e. w. wade; : m.b.o.u. 
The report of the breeding of the Fulmar Petrel — Fulmarus 
glacialis — on the Bempton Cliffs is a matter for congratulation 
to the naturalists of Yorkshire, but there is nothing surprising 
in the event. In the seventeenth century the Fulmar was 
almost confined as a breeding species within the British Isles to 
St. Kilda, but as early as 1758 Macaulay reported the King’s 
Sheriff in the Fames as expressing his resentment at the 
Fulmar having established itself on the Holm of Myggenaes 
and on Sando, where thirty years before it was unknown. 
The extension of the birds’ breeding area, commenced in 1728, 
has gone on ever since. Fifteen years sgo a friend told me it 
was breeding in the Orkneys, and during the last ten years, 
since attention was drawn to the subject, it has been reported 
as spreading down the east coast. In 1916 it commenced to 
nest in Aberdeenshire, in 1920 it was at St. Abb’s Head, 
Berwickshire, and in 1919-1920 was reported at the Fames, 
though its breeding was doubtful. In 1919 two birds in 
immature plumage appeared at the Bempton Cliffs. In 
1920 there were at least seven, and more than this in 1921, 
when I saw a bird evidently changing from the immature to 
the mature plumage, and predicted that they would breed in 
1922. Apart from the fact that the bird is new to us as a 
breeding species, it is very interesting, as evidence that the 
Fulmar does not breed till at least the third year of its age, 
no mature birds having been observed in previous years. The 
cause of the bird’s gradual extension of its breeding range is 
obscure, though the process has been going on for a long 
period. A visit to St. Kilda in 1914, during which a great 
part of a fortnight was spent in studying the Fulmar, led me 
to the conclusion that there must be a yearly surplus of young 
birds which were squeezed out of the St. Kilda group, the 
ground being already fully occupied. The St. Kildans used 
formerly to take the Fulmar as food on all the islands, the 
young being taken from the nests in August and salted down 
for food for the winter. Many old birds also were snared on 
the nests. The young are taken on Hirta alone now, those on 
Soay, Bocreray and Stac an Arnim being generally left alone, 
as the introduction of more palatable food from Glasgow has 
led to the neglect of some of their former staple diet. There 
must thus be a large surplus population each year which cannot 
find breeding ground on St. Kilda. 
To the St. Kildan the Fulmar is most valuable, as formerly 
it provided the only source from which they could get a supply 
of oil, and is still the main source of supply, in addition to 
1922 July 1 
