96 EGGS OF BEITISH BIRDS. 



THE PUFFIN. 



(Fratercida arctica.) 

 Plate 26, Figs. 1, 2. 



The Puffin, or " Sea Parrot," is one of the best-known of British 

 sea-birds, and is found in all suitable localities along the entire 

 coast-line of our islands during summer. In rocky districts it is 

 much more numerous than on low-lying coasts, and it is especially 

 abundant at Lundy Island, Priestholme off the coast of Anglesey, 

 the Isle of Man, the Hebrides (especially St. Kilda), the Orkneys, 

 Shetlands, and the Fame Islands. It is equally common on the 

 Irish coasts. It also nests on the coasts of North America. 



Puffins breed in colonies, sometimes only composed of a score 

 or so of birds, but very often of twenty thousand or more. Low 

 flat islands covered with turf, rocky islets (as the Bass and Ailsa 

 Craig), or bold headlands (as those of Flamborough) , are the places 

 usually selected. Sometimes, however, it takes up its quarters in 

 a rabbit-warren, breeding in the deserted burrows ; and at others 

 it rears its young amongst the clefts and crannies of the cliffs, or 

 under the thickly-strewn rock fragments. 



When first laid, the eggs of the Puffin are pale bluish-white in 

 ground-colour, very indistinctly spotted and blotched with pale 

 brown and violet-grey. Some eggs are much more finely marked 

 than others, having both kinds of spots large and distinct, some- 

 times confluent and forming an irregular zone round the large 

 end, or elongated into fine scratchy streaks. Most of the mark- 

 ings are underlying ones. The eggs vary in length from 26 to 

 2'2 inches, and in breadth from P75 to 1'6 inch. 



FAMILY LARIDJE, 

 OR GULLS AND TERNS. 



These may be divided into three sub-families, viz., the Terns 

 (Stemince), of which five nest with us, and eight are migrants 



