2 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



moderate size and of a duller colour. At that season, 

 however, the Puffin is not a familiar bird to us, although 

 dead ones are sometimes washed ashore. In summer the 

 Puffin is a common bird on all suitable parts of the 

 British coasts, the greatest break in its distribution 

 being on the east coast of England from the Humber 

 southwards. Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel is a 

 famous resort ; but it is on the north and west coasts of 

 Scotland and Ireland that it is most abundant, the size 

 of its colonies frequently defying computation altogether, 

 or to be estimated only in millions. Nowhere in these 

 islands is it so abundant as in the St Kilda group ; the 

 land is honeycombed with the nesting burrows, so that 

 one sinks through at every step, distm-bing the Puffins 

 within ; the slopes are covered with Puffins, each ridicu- 

 lous bird framed in the entrance to its nest ; the sea is 

 dotted for miles aromid with Puffins — Puffins fishing and 

 Puffins resting on the Atlantic swell ; the very air is 

 literally thick with Puffins flying in a ceaseless stream 

 from sea to cliff laden with their spoils, and back again 

 from cliff to sea for more. The natives of these distant 

 isles derive no small part of their subsistence from the 

 Puffins, taking himdreds of young ones from their burrows 

 and skilfully snaring old ones. Further, each pair of 

 Peregrine Falcons levies a toll of scores each season ; but 

 they are never missed ! 



Familiarity with the Puffin does not tend to abate- 

 ment of one's amusement, for the observer finds much in 

 its habits which is in harmony with its appearance. The 

 Puffin, as already mentioned, commonly uses for nesting 

 proposes a burrow in the stiff peaty soil or short tiu'f 

 of the less precipitous slopes of the islands or coasts on 

 which it dwells, but sometimes a mere rock crevice suffices. 

 The same burrows are used again and again, and when 



