212 The Irish Naturalist. November, 
after they reach the water. I have never witnessed the 
older birds, having any difficulty coaxing the young to sea : 
as soon as the young reaches the water it dives with the 
older birds, and they accompany it on either side to the 
deep. In a case of its toppling down the cliff from a 
height at which some of our birds build I can easily imagine 
their difficulty. 
An instance that I have observed of a young bird toppling 
down was that of a forsaken Puffin when the parents had 
left with the flock. In the case of the Puffins they lay 
their eggs almost anywhere they can get their heads ; 
in every burrow, large or small, underneath every stone can 
be found a Puffin's egg. The rock is almost covered with 
these birds. At any hour of the day one can see these 
birds bring the food. When the young are small they bring 
the small " fry " 8 and 9 and sometimes 10 at a time, but 
this time of the season (August) as the young ones become 
strong, they bring home a single fish about 3 J inches or 4 
inches long. 
The young leave with the flock in the morning early. 
They are strong, fully feathered before they attempt to 
go, but many of them are forsaken before they are able 
to go. In that case they ramble out of the nests, and 
topple down the cliff. If not devoured by the Royal Gull 
they meet with a fall equally bad. Hundreds of them are 
killed in this way. When the greater number of the birds 
have left, few ever return to feed an 3^ of the late young ; 
but there are exceptions, as I write this the Puffins are 
gone, and a single bird can be seen coming with food to its 
young. They do not rest on the rock at this stage but 
fly straight into the nest, drop the food and out to sea 
again. 
The Puffin will allow itself to be hauled out of the nest 
by holding on to a piece of stick or anything it catches. 
These are wonderful birds regarding their fighting pro- 
pensities. I have lifted them off the ground over four feet 
with a piece of stick underneath their chin they having such 
a firm hold of each other before their releasing that hold ; 
and at this time they were after falling close on 100 feet, 
