THE PUFFIK 



FRAT^RCULA ARCTICA. 



Crown, collar, and upper parts, black ; cheeks, region of the eyes, and throat, 

 greyish white ; under parts pure white ; bill bluish grey at the base, yellow in 

 the middle, bright red at the tip ; upper mandible with three transverse 

 furrows, lower, with two ; iris whitish ; orbits red ; feet orange-red. Length 

 twelve and a half inches. Eggs whitish, with indistinct ash-coloured spots. 



UNLIKE the majority of sea-birds which have been passing 

 tinder our notice, Puffins visit the shores of the British 

 Isles in summer. They make their appearance about 

 April or May, not scattering themselves indiscriminately 

 along the coast, but resorting in vast numbers to various 

 selected breeding places, from the Scilly Islands to 

 .the Orkneys. Their home being the sea, and their diet 

 small fish, they possess the faculties of swimming and 

 diving to a degree of perfection. They have, moreover, 

 considerable powers of flight ; but on land their gait is 



NN 2 



