296 THE PUFFIN 
for boring, they lay their eggs under large stones or in crevices in 
the rock. The old bird sits most assiduously, and suffers herself 
to be taken rather than desert her charge, but not without wound- 
ing, with her powerful beak, and to the best of her ability, the hand 
which ventures into her stronghold. Myriads burrow on Lundy 
Island. Lunde means Puffin, and ey Island, the name being given 
by the old Scandinavian rovers who settled there. 
The young are fed by both parents, at first on half-digested fish, 
and when older on pieces of fresh fish. At this period they suffer 
their colonies to be invaded without showing much alarm, and are 
either shot, knocked down with a stick, or noosed without difficulty. 
As soon as the young are fully fledged, all the Puffins withdraw to 
southern seas, where they pass the winter, and do not approach 
land until the return of the breedingseason. ‘‘ A small island near 
Skye, named Fladda-huna, is a great breeding haunt of Puffins, a 
species which arrives in the earlier part of May, literally covering the 
rocks and ledgy cliffs withits feathered thousands. Although these 
have no concern with our Grouse-shooting season, they almost totally 
disappear on the twelfthof August.” 1 It was just about this period 
(August 7) in the present year (1861) that I observed several large 
flocks of Puffins, floating with the tide through the Sound of Islay, 
and was told by an intelligent gamekeeper that ‘‘ these birds habitu- 
ally swim through the sound at this season, but always fly when 
returning’’. The reason probablyis that the young are not at the 
former period sufficiently fledged to undertake a long flight, though 
they find no difficulty in swimming. By spring they have attained 
their full strength, and are able to adopt the more rapid mode of 
progress. In Scotland there are many large colonies, also in the 
cliffs by Flamborough Head, and on the Farne Islands. 
Puffins and some other sea-birds appear to be either liable to a 
fatal epidemic or to be surprised by some atmospheric disturbance, 
being unable to resist which, they perish in large numbers. I have 
seen a portion of the sea-shore in Cornwall strewed for the distance 
of more than a mile with hundreds of their remains. All the softer 
parts had been apparently devoured by fishes and crustaceous 
animals, and nothing was left but the unmistakable parrot-like 
beaks. A friend informs me that he witnessed a similar pheno- 
menon in Norfolk, in September, 1858; but in this instance the 
carcases of the birds were not devoured, and the birds were of different 
kinds. He estimated that about ninety per cent. were Guillemots, 
and the remainder Puffins, Razor-bills, Scoters, and a sprinkling of 
Black Throated Divers. A similar mortality among sea-birds is 
recorded in the Zoologist as having taken place on the coast of 
Norfolk, in May, 1856. On this occasion they were so numerous 
as to be thought worth collecting for manure. 
4 Wilson’s Voyage round the Coast of Scotland. 
