202 British Birds, 



small bii-d like this, whose whole air and deportment 

 conveyed to me more completely the idea of entire in- 

 dependence. Only under the pressure of severe storms 

 or long continued hard weather do they leave the 

 deep sea in order to seek the comparative shelter of 

 some land-sheltered Lay or reach. It breeds on the 

 Faroe Isles and in Iceland, but not in Britain. 



Y'\5YYY^—{Fratercula arctiai). 



Sea Parrot, Coulterneb, Tammy Xorie. — This is, 

 one may safely say, the ({uaintest-lookincr of all the 

 Lost of our English Lirds. The young Owl is gro- 

 tesque enough, Lut more by reason of its deliLerate, 

 solemn-seeming, and j^et laughaLle movements ; Lut 

 tbe Puffin, \\\i\\ its upright attitude and huge ribbed 

 and painted beak — reminding one somewhat strongly 

 of the highly-coloured pasteboard noses of prej)osterous 

 shape and dimensions which, at some seasons, decorate 

 the windows of the toy-shop — strikes us as more 

 laughably singular yet. They breed abundantly about 

 many of our rocky coasts in all parts of the kingdom, 

 depositing their one egg — a large one, again, in pro- 

 . portion to the size of tlie bird — sometimes in crannies 

 or rifts in the surface of the cliff, often very far back ; 

 at other times in rabbit-burrows where such excava- 

 tions are to be met with sufficiently near the coast and 

 otherwise suitable to the wants of the bird. It does 

 not follow that because the Puffin occupies the hole, 

 that the rabbit had forsaken it or even given it up 

 "■' for a consideration." On the contrary the Puffin is 

 quite ready and equally able to seize on and continue 

 to occupy the desired home by force of arms. In 



