AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 265 



the nesting-holes for a considerable time ; as soon as 

 they are strong on the wing they leave the coasts 

 with their parents, and it is exceptional to see more 

 than a very few near land from the end of August 

 till the following spring. This latter statement is 

 certainly confirmed by my own experience. The 

 Puffin is a strong and rapid flyer, an active swimmer, 

 and a diver of the first class, feeding almost 

 exclusively upon small fishes captured below the 

 surface of the water. Notwithstanding the character 

 of its diet, our bird is by no means bad eating when 

 no better fowl is to be had. The horny sheath of the 

 lower mandible, and the curious and apparently 

 superfluous appendages of bare skin about the 

 eyes and gape, that give such an extraordinary look 

 to the face of the Puffin, are shed in the autumn, 

 and this loss so completely alters the appearance 

 of the bird tliat I have little doubt that it has caused 

 the frequent mistakes in identification to which I 

 have above alluded. In my experience this species 

 is rare in the Mediterranean, but it occasionally 

 visits the Straits of Gibraltar in some numbers, and 

 has been met with as far to the eastward as Sicily in 

 the winter. A curious occurrence of a Puffin far 

 from its usual haunts took place on May 16, 1887, 

 when one of these birds flew into a bedroom of 

 No. 45 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, W., and 

 was picked up alive, but with a broken leg. I 

 mention this as I had occupied this house for several 

 months in the previous year, and because the owner, 

 aware of my ornithological tastes, was good enough 

 to send me the skin of this erratic Puffin, which is 

 now stuffed at Lilford. 



