THE PUFFIN. 549 



with our Grouse-shooting season, they almost totally dis- 

 appear on the 12th of August."* It was just about this 

 period (August 7) in the present year, 1861, that I ob- 

 served several large flocks of Puffins floating with the tide 

 through the Sound of Islay, and was told by an intelligent 

 gamekeeper that "these birds habitually swim through 

 the sound at this season, but always fly when returning." 

 The 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. 



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 unmistakeable parrot-like 

 beaks. A friend informs me that he witnessed a similar 

 phenomenon 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 the 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. 



Other names by which the Puffin is known are Sea 

 Parrot, Coulterneb, Mullet, Bottlenose j and, in Scotland, 

 Ailsa Parrot, Tammie-Norie, and Tammas. 



* Wilson's " Voyage round the Coast of Scotland." 

 t Page 5159. 



