728 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Sheffield in Yorkshire, much less than this we have described, 

 which 3'et, I think, differed only in age, for all marks agreed." 

 (Will. " Orn." 1676, p. 325.) 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, referred to it as follows : — 

 Fratercula arctica. — The Puffin — Commoa at Flamborough. 

 This grotesque looking bird is resident in Yorkshire, 

 breeding in very large numbers on the Flamborough range 

 of cliffs between the Headland and Raincliff, one of its two 

 nesting stations on the east coast of England, and the only 

 one on the mainland ; this is, doubtless, the situation 

 Willughby referred to in his mention of the bird breeding 

 " near Scarborough." 



It arrives at the summer quarters about mid-April, 

 generally later than the other fowl ; nidification commences 

 in May, and the solitary egg is deposited in a hole or crevice 

 of the rocks, in a deserted rabbit burrow, or one scooped 

 out by the bird itself where the soil is sufficiently friable 

 for that purpose. If robbed of its first egg while fresh the 

 Puffin lays again after a lapse of fourteen days, but if the 

 egg should be much incubated it is doubtful whether a second 

 is produced. The Yorkshire climbers do not as a rule take 

 many Puffins' eggs, as they are difficult of access, and not 

 greatly in demand by collectors, unless exceptional in the 

 way of being heavily spotted or marked ; occasionally 

 specimens with zones or bands of markings are brought up ; 

 one with a broad zone of spots was found in June 1904. It 

 may here be mentioned that the Puffin, when sitting on the 

 rocks, does not invariably rest on the tarsus, but more often 

 assumes an erect attitude, standing on its feet. The young 

 is at first covered with blackish down on the back, the breast 

 being light-coloured. 



The old birds often take long journeys to sea in search 

 of food, and are found many miles away from their homes, 

 to which they return in straggling parties as night approaches. 

 By the middle of August the young are on the water, and, 

 at the end of the month, both they and their parents have 

 hft the neighbourhood, and gone out to sea, and southward, 

 for the majority are partly migratory, few being seen near 



