PUFFIN. 93 



the whole leave our coasts." Mr. Theodore Walker says 

 (Zool. 1871, p. 2427) that when the young are hatched the 

 old bird goes to sea and catches " soils," or young herrings, 

 not exceeding an inch in length, and carries them by their 

 heads, the tails projecting on each side of the bill, some- 

 times taking as many as twenty at once. Proceeding to the 

 hole it lays down all the fishes, and gives the young bird 

 one at a time until they are all eaten. When the female 

 is sitting the male feeds her in the same way. The young 

 are generally three weeks old before they are seen at the 

 entrance of their holes ; they can then run as fast, or even 

 faster, than their parents, and being enticed down to the sea 

 by the old birds, they leave the island in three or four days. 



Puffins when on land rest on the w^hole length of the foot 

 and heel, as represented in the illustration, and walk in 

 consequence with a waddling gait ; but they fly rapidly, and 

 can swim and dive well. They feed on marine insects, small 

 Crustacea, and young fish, and they will go long distances — 

 Mr. Maclachlan says fifty miles — for their food. He often 

 saw these and other rock-birds going straight for Skerryvore 

 lighthouse early in the morning when he was extinguishing 

 the lights on Barra Head ; and so regular was their return 

 that the natives coming from marketing in Tobermory 

 used to follow their flight when fogs came on, with the 

 certainty of being piloted to Barra Head or Mingalay. 

 During stormy weather these birds not unfrequently become 

 victims, and after a continuance of severe gales there are 

 generally some records in the papers of Pufiins having been 

 picked up far inland. 



The Puffin is the most abundant of all the rock-birds 

 visiting the Fseroes ; there are vast colonies on the coast of 

 Norway, especially north of the Arctic circle ; and it is also 

 common in Iceland. In the waters of Spitsbergen, in small 

 numbers compared with those of other members of the 

 family, there occurs a large form — notably so as regards the 

 bill — which has been distinguished by some ornithologists 

 by the name of Fraterciila {ilacialis, and it is probably this 

 form which occurs sparingly in Novaya Zemlya, and more 



