306 THE MANX SHEARWATER 
with the name in books should satisfy himself whether the subject 
of his study be an Auk or a Shearwater, before he admits as facts 
any statements about the ‘ Puffin’ which may fall in his way. 
Yarrell, for instance, gives the name of Puffin to the bird already 
described under the name of Fratercula Arctica, while by Montagu 
that bird is described under the name of ‘ Coulterneb’, ‘ Puffin’ 
being given as a synonym for the Shearwater. Off Cornwall it is 
called skiddeu and brew. 
The Shearwater is so called from its mode of flight, in which it 
‘shears’ or skims the water; and its distinctive name, Manx, it 
owes to its having been formerly very abundant in the Calf? of 
Man, a small island lying south of the Isle of Man. 
The Manx Shearwater is, during the greater portion of the year, 
an ocean-bird, and only ventures on shore during the breeding season.| 
It then repairs to some island, or portion of the coast little frequented 
by man, and in society with other birds of the same species there 
takes up its summer quarters. A sandy or light earthy soil, scantily 
furnished with vegetation, is preferred to any other station. Its 
nest is a hole in the ground, either the deserted burrow of a rabbit 
or a tunnel excavated by itself, or less frequently it lays its one 
egg in the crevice of a rock. During the day Shearwaters, for the 
most part, remain concealed in their holes, and lie so close that they 
will suffer themselves to be dug out with a spade and make no 
attempt to escape. Towards evening they quit their hiding-places,’ 
and paddle or fly out to sea inquest of food. This consists of small 
fish and other marine animals which swim near the surface, and are 
caught by the birds either while they are floating or ‘shearing ’, 
the water. No nest ever contains more than one egg, but that one 
and the chick which it produces are objects of the greatest solicitude. 
Unfortunately for the poor Shearwaters, their young, though 
fed on half-digested fish oil, are delicate eating ; consequently,’ 
some of the stations of these birds have been quite depopulated,’ 
and in others their numbers have been greatly thinned. 
Willughby tells us that in his time ‘ Puffins’ were very numerous 
in the Calf of Man, and that fully fledged young birds, taken from 
the nests, were sold at the rate of ninepence a dozen. He adds, 
that in order to keep an accurate reckoning of the number taken, 
it was customary to cut off, and retain, one of each bird’s legs. 
The consequence was that the state in which the birds were sent 
to market was supposed to be their natural condition, and the 
Puffin was popularly believed to be a ‘ monopod’ (one-footed bird). 
This station is now nearly, if not quite, deserted ; but colonies 
still exist in Annet, one of the Scilly Islands, on the south coast 
of Wales, in the Orkneys, and in the Shetlands. In the Scilly 
1 ‘Calf’, on many parts of the coast, is a name given to the smaller of two 
rocks in proximity, of which the larger is called the ‘Cow’. 
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