2n8 



THE PUFFIN, {MORMON FEATERCULA.) 



BY JOHN DUTTON, ESQ. 



The Puffin frequents the high and almost perpendicular clilTs extending 

 from Scratchell's Bay, near the Needles, Isle of Wight, to Freshwater 

 Gate, but more especially at that lofty and perpendicular part of the clifife 

 called Main Bench, under the lighthouse. These grand and imposing cliffs^ 

 by far the loftiest in the island, are about six hundred feet in height, and 

 in some parts higher. Here, in the breeding-season, are to be observed vast 

 numbers of them, together with the Foolish Guillemot, or Willock, (Uria 

 troile,) and the Razor-bill, {Alca tarda,) all of which build here. Puffin 

 shooting is a favourite sport of the visitors to this part of the island, and 

 is in itself an exceedingly exciting recreation, it being no unfrequent 

 occurrence for a party of three or four to kill three or four dozen cliff 

 birds in a few hours. 



The following remarks are from "Bell's Weekly Messenger." "Puffins. 

 These marine migratory birds, which visit this island only in the breeding- 

 season, during the present month (June) swarm in the locality of the 

 Needles Bocks, at the western extremity of the Isle of Wight. Puffin 

 shooting constitutes a peculiar branch of the fowler's pursuit, as the latter 

 make a rich harvest from the feathers they obtain from these birds. The 

 eggs are also taken in great quantities from their nests, which are built 

 in the clefts of the rocks, and are applied to the purposes of refining and 

 clarifying sugars on a very extensive scale." 



Stormy Petrel. — A Stormy Petrel was shot by a man of the name of 

 Banks, and brought to me, but in a bad state. — R. V. Dennis, Blatching- 

 ton, near Seaford, Sussex, October 4th., 1856. 



Phalarope. — A bird, described to me as a Storm Petrel, but which, 

 according to the description of the old man who saw it, must have been 

 a Phalarope, was watched for three-quarters of an hour, swimming about 

 to leeward of a piece of wreck-timber. He described it as swimming more 

 lightly than any other bird he had ever seen. — Idem. 



Grey Phalarope, — I shot a Grey Phalarope last Monday, in an adjacent 

 river; its movements were peculiarly graceful and light in the water, it 

 flew rapidly like a Sandpiper, and joined company with a little party of 

 Sandpipers on the wing. — Idem. 



Riyiff Ouzel. — An unusual number of Ring Ouzels have made their ap- 

 j>earance on the hills, feeding on the black -berries, etc., they are wild as 



