AUKS 271 



animalium histoi^ia : " Hunc nostri Puphinum 

 dicunt, DOS Piipinum a natural! voce pwpin." 



It is a summer migrant to all the precipitous 

 coasts of the British Islands, the majority going 

 south for the winter. 



The island of Priestholm, off the coast of 

 Anglesey, was once frequented by such an ex- 

 traordinary number of these birds as to acquire 

 the name of Puffin Island. When the Rev. W. 

 Bingley, during a tour in North Wales, visited this 

 island at the beginning of the present century, he 

 found "upwards of fifty acres of land literally 

 covered with Puffins." " I speak much within com- 

 pass," he says, "when I declare that the number here 

 must have been upwards of 50,000." He adds : 

 " They arrive in the beginning of April, and 

 remain till about the 11th of August,^ taking 

 possession of burrows in the crevices of the rocks, 

 or on the sloping ground of the island, from which, 

 in many places, they have expelled the rightful 

 owners — the rabbits " (" Tour in North Wales," 

 1804, vol. i. pp. 348-354). Dr. Caius, in the 

 work above quoted, states (p. 98), *' that in his 

 day (1570), Puffins were usually caught by means 

 of ferrets, as we now take rabbits. At the present 

 day, they are either dug out of the burrows, seized 

 by hand, or drawn out with a hooked stick. 



The southernmost breeding-place of this species 

 appears to be the Berlengas or Farallones, a group 



' On the Fame Islands, it is said, the Puffins arrive aliout the 

 5th of April and depart about the 5th of September. 



