584 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



seen in the spring plumage, but solitarj' examples are shot annually, 

 and in some years even in pretty large numbers. 



The breeding stations of this little bird are ' circumpolar,' 

 between 70° and 80° N. latitude. 



391. — Puffin [Papageitaucher]. 



ALCA ARCTICA, Linn.i 



Heligolandish : Gronlandsk T)imik= Greenland Dove. 



Lunda arctica. Naumann, xii. 577. 



Puffin. Dresser, viii. 599. 



Macareux moine. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 933, iv. 5 So. 



This species used to breed on this island until the beginning of 

 the ' thirties,' though its numbers were limited to only one or two pairs. 

 These used to breed on a cone-shaped column of rock about thirty 

 feet high, having at its upper portion a deep tubular recess exca- 

 vated in the layers of stone — in fact, the place might have been 

 specially designed as a breeding station for this bird. An old shoe- 

 maker called Koopmann, who, I believe, was the first to start bird- 

 stuffing on the island, captured the breeding pairs in a net which he 

 had arranged in front of the opening of the cavity ; since that time 

 none of these peculiar birds have bred here again. Nevertheless, 

 almost every sj^ring, at the tinie when the Guillemots swarm 

 round this island in their thousands, several Puffins are usually 

 mixed with the crowds of the former birds, a few of them being 

 also generally shot. This, however, is all that can be recorded in 

 regard to the occurrence of the species, unless it be that a young 

 autumn bird is killed once in a way at intervals of many years. 



It breeds on the rocky coasts of Labrador, South Greenland, Ice- 

 land, Spitzbergen, on Yaranger Fjord, the coasts and islands of 

 Great Britain, and as far south as the Atlantic coasts of Portugal. 



Grebe — Podiceps. — This genus contains about sixteen species. 

 In the form of the foot they seem related to the Waterhens, but in 

 structure, mode of life, and habits, they represent the most perfect 



Fratercula arctica (Linn.). 



