440 PUFFINUS CINEREUS. 



In short, so much vagueness and uncertainty exists with 

 respect to these Puffins, and so ill qualified am I to throw any 

 light on the suhject, that I think it best to refer the matter to 

 those who may have opportunities of examining fresh speci- 

 mens. Mr. Thompson indicates its occasional occurrence on 

 the coast of Ireland, and gives some statements furnished by 

 Mr. Robert Uavis, of Clonmel, who, on visiting Dungarvan, 

 Waterford, in the summer of 1840, learned that it "is never 

 met Avitli near the shore, but only far out, and is occasionally 

 taken on the hook and line employed in hake-fishing. The 

 fishermen sometimes keep them for weeks about their houses, 

 and in some instances the birds have become tame ; they 

 never attempt to fly." Two individuals which he kept for 

 some time alive, scrambled or ran along with their breasts 

 about an inch and a half or less from the ground, and never 

 attempted to fly, but even allowed themselves to fall from a 

 height without so much as opening their wings. 



