132 PUFFIN 



adds that when engaged in digging, which operation is 

 generally performed by the males, they are sometimes so 

 intent upon their work as to allow themselves to be taken 

 by the hand ; and the same may also be done when the 

 bird is sitting on its egg. The young are hatched after a 

 month's incubation. In about a like period of time they 

 come to their full feathers, and are able to quit their native 

 burrows, and take to the ocean. Meyer says that where 

 both birds have been killed, others have been known to 

 take charge of the egg or young. 



Only one egg is laid, and its colour is white, sometimes 

 spotted with pale grey, or freckled with pale brown or lilac. 



