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. Liinde means Puffin, and ey Island, the name b sing 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 breeding season. " 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, literall}^ covering the 

 rocks and ledgy cliffs with its feathered thousands. Although these 

 have no concern with our Grouse-shooting season, they almost totally 

 disappear on the twelfth of August." ^ 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". Tlie reason probably is 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 Fame 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 th3 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. 



^ Wilson's Voyage round the Coast of Scotlaul. 



