yoS PUFFIN. 



said of the wilder parts of Ireland. During stormy weather the 

 Pufifin is frequently driven far inland, and an individual has been 

 known to fly through an open window in Brook .Street. London. 



This species is the most abundant of the rock-birds which visit 

 the Faeroes, and there are vast colonies on the coast of Norway — 

 especially north of the Arctic circle — as well as in Iceland. A large 

 race from Spitsbergen has been distinguished by some ornithologists 

 as F. glacialis, and it is probably this which occurs sparingly in 

 Novaya Zemlya, and more plentifully on the coast of Greenland up 

 to 70° N. lat. Southward, our form breeds on the Atlantic coast of 

 America down to the Bay of Fundy, migrating in winter as far as 

 Massachusetts. Returning to Europe, the Puffin nests on many of 

 the smaller Channel Islands, as well as on the coast of France, 

 and I observed numbers off the Berlengas Islands in June : while 

 in winter the bird is not uncommon in the Mediterranean as far east 

 as Sicily, and it has wandered to the Canary Islands. 



In May a single egg is deposited in the fissure of a cliff, or at 

 some distance down a burrow in short turf or loose soil ; it is at 

 first of a dull white, freckled or even zoned with pale brown or lilac, 

 but the rough granular shell soon becomes stained : measurements 

 2-25 by I "6 in. In some places the eggs are laid under stones, or 

 without cover on ledges. Incubation lasts fully a month, and the 

 nestlings, which are covered at first with black down, remain for about 

 three weeks in their retreat ; being fed with herring-fry and other 

 small fishes, carried transversely in the bills of their parents — 

 as many as eight at a time. Crustaceans and other marine creatures 

 are also eaten ; the birds going out to procure food with great 

 regularity, and flying long distances — sometimes fifty miles — on 

 the quest. When on land Puffins rest on the whole length of 

 the foot and heel, and walk with a waddling gait ; but they fly 

 rapidly, and can swim and dive well. They fight fiercely, sometimes 

 holding one another till both are drowned. " Sea-Parrot " and 

 "Coulter-neb" are among the commonest of the English local names. 



A detailed description of the adult in summer is rendered un- 

 necessary by the figure; length 13 in., wing 6 in.; Spitsbergen 

 examples being larger. In autumn the horny frontal sheath of the 

 bill is shed in several pieces, and the bill is consequently much 

 smaller in winter, as well as duller in colour. The young bird has 

 a less developed and shallower beak ; the sides of the head are 

 deeper grey, and the space in front of the eye is sooty-black ; in 

 some cases the dark face is partially retained when the bird begins 

 to breed, in its third year. Albinisms are not rare. 



