ii8 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



with Guillemots and Razor-Bills. During the nesting 

 season it may be seen sporting about, diving, floating, 

 and skimming over the water with the greatest 

 activity. As soon as the young are sufficiently strong 

 the parents take them off to sea, and after July none 

 are to be seen. Occasionally a few stragglers are 

 left behind until the autumn, and more rarely a 

 solitary bird or two may be met with in winter ; but 

 these probably are birds which have come to us from 

 breeding stations farther north. I have notes of 

 one shot in Poole harbour, February 3, 1847, ^^^ 

 January 26, 1883 (E. Hart); one at Swanage after 

 its autumn moult (J. E. Stainer). Thirty or more, 

 which had not been long dead, were thrown upon 

 the Chesil Bank after a storm in January. 



It is a curious fact that the Puffin not only moults 

 its feathers in autumn, but also sheds portions of 

 its bill, whereby the shape of the bill is materially 

 altered. An interesting account of this singular 

 change, illustrated with a coloured plate, will be 

 found in The Zoologist for 1878, p. 233, It was 

 originally investigated and explained by Dr. Louis 

 Bureau {Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 1878), but 

 English ornithologists had long before noticed an 

 alteration in the shape of the Puffin's bill in summer 

 and winter (ZooZ., 1862, p. 8003, and 1863, p. 8331) ; 

 and, as pointed out by Mr. Harting, some such 

 change as that which is now known to take place 

 was hinted at so long ago as 1804, by Bingley in his 

 "Tour in North Wales" (vol. i. p. 354), in his 

 account of the Puffin on the island of Priestholme. 



