PUFFIN. 91 



It is a singular-looking bird, its aspect being rendered more 

 peculiar by the form and colour of its bill, and a certain 

 quaintness in its gait. As a rule it is a summer visitor to 

 the British Islands, making its appearance early in April, 

 and departing with great regularity by the end of August ; 

 but Mr. R. Gray states, that on the east coast of Scotland, 

 especially in the Firth of Forth, the Puffin is never absent — 

 the place of the local birds, which go southwards, being 

 supplied by flocks from more northern regions ; and on the 

 west side it arrives at the beginning of February. Grassy 

 slopes on cliffs, low islands covered with a short turf suit- 

 able for burrows, or masses of fallen rocks, are the places 

 selected by Puffins for the great object of their visit, the 

 reproduction of their species ; and the localities in which 

 they assemble in multitudes are too numerous to be men- 

 tioned. On the south coast their numbers have decreased, 

 and comparatively few breed in the Isle of Wight and in 

 the cliffs of Dorsetshire ; nor do there appear to be many 

 suitable localities on the south coasts of Devon and Corn- 

 wall. The Scilly Islands, to which they still resort in con- 

 siderable numbers, appear to have been famous for Puffins in 

 early times ; for William Botoner, or Buttoner — commonly 

 called William of Worcester — in his ' Itinerary ' written in 

 1468 or 1478, speaks of the Island of Trescoe as inhabited 

 " cuniculis et avibus vocatis pophyns'^ (Harting, Introd. 

 p. xii. to Rodd's B. of Cornwall). Mr. Frederick Holme, of 

 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to whom the Author was 

 indebted for many interesting notices on our British birds, 

 sent the following : — " The Scilly Isles were held in the 

 fourteenth century, under the king as Earl of Cornwall, by 

 Ranulph de Blancminster for an annual payment of six 

 shillings and eight pence, or three hundred Puffins at 

 Michaelmas."* Myriads burrow in the slopes of Lundy 

 Island, which, in fact, owes its Scandinavian name {lande 

 puffin, ey island) to the birds found there by the northern 

 rovers who once made it their residence. Priestholm, off 

 the coast of Anglesea, is another well-known haunt, and there 



* Probably salted or dried birds for fresh ones would not be olitainable. 



