ALCID.E. 



691 



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THE PUFFIN. 



Fratercula arctica (Linnaeus). 



The Puffin is the sole representative in the Atlantic of a well- 

 marked genus, whose three other members are confined to the 

 North Pacific— the head-quarters of the Aldda. Even in winter it 

 is seldom absent altogether from British waters ; while from the 

 end of March to early in April or May — according to latitude— it 

 begins to return to its breeding-places, which it leaves with great 

 regularity in the latter part of August. At the present day com- 

 paratively few nest in the Isle of Wight, Dorsetshire, Devon or 

 Cornwall ; but numbers breed in the Scilly Islands, and m\iiads 

 burrow in the slopes of Lundy Island, which received its name [liifidc 

 puffin, ey island) from the Scandinavian rovers who formerly resided 

 there. Many haunts exist in Wales, as well as a few in the Isle 

 of Man ; but on the east side of England the cliffs near Flam- 

 borough, and some of the Fame Islands, are the only resorts 

 known. In Scotland large colonies are very plentiful, and the 

 swarms of birds going and coming round many of the islands in the 

 Hebrides make the horizon quite hazy; while the same may be said 

 of the wilder parts of Ireland. During stormy weather the Puffin 



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