272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



boil hard like any other bird's eggs,* but always remain 

 a jelly, and that the old lighthouse-keeper, Darling, used to aver 

 that they were the richest eggs laid on the rocks. I would rather 

 he eat them than I. 



In 1875 I was told two white nestlings were seen; for a wonder, 

 they grew up, and got away without being shot. 



Puffin, Fratercula arctica (L.) 



The Puffin is getting up its numbers, according to the boatmen. 

 At certain times of the year they may be seen dotted all round 

 about the islands, on which they breed very freely. They some- 

 times go by the name of " Tommy Noddies,"f but the fishermen 

 in the neighbourhood of the islands use local names but little. 

 In reply to my questions, they said that they came about the 5th 

 of April, and left about the 5th of September. Perhaps this 

 hardly puts the date of their coming early enough. In 1876 I 

 was in the vicinity of the islands on the 5th of April, and saw 

 about a score of single birds, and a flock of ten. On the other 

 hand, Selby, who was as well acquainted with the Fern islands 

 as any naturalist could be, speaks of them as coming " about the 

 middle of April" (Brit. Orn., ii., p. 440); but I imagine that he 

 is alluding here to the mass, and not to the forerunners of the 

 army. The young of the preceding year are sometimes met with 

 as late as the April following their birth, for on the 26th of that 

 month, 1866, I shot a young one between the islands and the 

 mainland. I suspect it was diseased. Its legs were very white, 

 and it weighed only 11 oz., having but little flesh on its bones. 

 This would account for its never having developed into an adult 

 Puffin. The occurrence of young Puffins on the English coasts in 

 the early spring is frequent enough to have attracted a good deal 

 of attention. They have been commonly termed " Winter 

 Puffins," and several ornithologists have been led to suspect that 

 they were a distinct species. Some interesting articles will be 

 found on the subject in the *' Zoologist." Several have passed 

 under my hands, and I have examined them internally and 

 externally, at diff'erent times, without ever finding any reason to 



• This I believe to be quite the case ; at least on an occasion when I 

 tried in Sutherland, I utterly failed to boil two or three eggs of the 

 Cormorant to the same consistency as those of a Plover, which I tried at 

 the same time. — J. A. H.-BuowN. 



t In Scotland, "Tammy Nories."— J. A. H.-B. 



