ALCADE. 593 
or in a natural cavity to which there is but one 
entrance: where space allows it several birds con- 
gregate in the same cavity. 
The food appears to be entirely fish, and Yarrell 
adds thin-skinned Crustacea. 
This is a little bird, considerably smaller than the 
Puffin. The bill is black; irides hazel; there is a 
small white spot over the eye; the head, hind part 
of the neck, back, wings and tail are black, but the 
ends of the secondaries and sides of the tertials are 
margined with white, which makes several white 
streaks on each side of the back; the colour on the 
chin, throat and neck in front, depends on the season, 
being black in summer, white in winter, and mottled 
in spring and autumn—that is to say, while the 
change of plumage is going on; the under surface 
of the body is white; the legs and toes yellowish 
brown; the webs darker brown. 
The eggs are said to be of a uniform pale blue, 
not unlike those of the Starling in colour. Meyer's 
picture seems much too large, considerably ex- 
ceeding the measurements given by Yarrell. 
Purrin, Fratercula arctica. This curious-looking 
little bird occasionally straggles up the Bristol Chan- 
nel from Lundy as far as our coast. Yarrell con- 
siders it a summer visitor to the English coast, but 
I have seen one or two specimens off Exmouth in 
the winter. Montagu also mentions their occasional 
appearance on that coast during the winter: some of 
3B 
