BIRDS 75 



The number of Pufl&ns breeding on Puffin Island varies remark- 

 ably. They were particularly numerous in 1908, but had 

 dwindled to about twenty pairs in 1911 , after which they increased 

 to a small extent up to 1914. 



Bell in his British Quadrupeds, 2nd ed., p. 313, writes : " In 

 the year 1816 or 1817, a Prussian vessel was wrecked on the 

 S.W. side of Puffin Island on the coast of Wales. The island 

 takes its name from the multitudes of Puffins which frequented 

 it, and it was also colonised by vast numbers of Rabbits. No 

 annoyance had ever been experienced from Rats until the 

 occurrence above mentioned took place ; but after that, in 

 consequence of the migration of these animals from the wreck 

 to the shore, and their subsequent rapid increase, the Rabbits 

 were almost if not wholly exterminated, the Puffins were ejected 

 by the destruction of their eggs by the rats, and the parties 

 who rented the island gave up their holdings." 



With reference to the number of fish brought in at one time, 

 Mr. O. V. Aplin writes in the Zoologist, 1910, 43, that he has 

 seen Puffins bring " a thick bimch of small ones hanging from 

 both sides of the bill — six or seven certainly, and possibly 

 more." 



Mr. R. W. Jones thinks that the Puffins on the Great Orme's 

 Head are mostly trippers from Puffin Island, though a few do 

 breed there. Pennant describes them as swarming on the Little 

 Orme's Head, but nowadays they are seldom numerous, though 

 a small number breed there every year. 



240.— GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. Colymbus immer 



Briinn. 



Not uncommon, autumn to spring, in the west ; rarer in the north, and 

 only a straggler inland. 



241.— BLACK-THROATED DIVER. Colymbus arcticus L. 



Occasional visitor to the coasts and estuaries : recorded once inland. 



Mr. Coward (F. Fauna Cheshire, I., 441) mentions one killed 

 at Puddington on the Dee estuary about 1853. Single birds 

 have been seen off the Great Orme's Head by Mr. R. W. Jones, 

 30th April, 1910, 30th April, 1911, and 14th May, 1912. 



242.— RED-THROATED DIVER. Colymbus stellalus 

 Pontopp. 



Common on the coast from autumn to May. 



