34 LUNDY ISLAND. 



and strikes manfully, while the knife-beak of the dis- 

 honest bird gives him a terribly unfair advantage. 

 Sometimes two male puffins contend ; each strives to 

 catch his adversary by the neck ; and when he can 

 accomplish it, shakes and holds him with the tenacity 

 of a bull-dog. 



Auks and guillemots likewise bear a part in the 

 exploratory April visit ; but not in such numbers as 

 the puffins. 



One of our party knocked-over a puffin with a clod 

 of earth, just to examine it. We did not wish to 

 destroy them, and therefore abstained generally from 

 throwing. It was stunned, and lay in our hands while 

 we admired the thickness and closeness of its plumage, 

 beautifully clean and satiny, especially the white parts. 

 Presently it began to open its large dreamy grey eyes, 

 so singularly set in scarlet eyelids : we did not wish to 

 prove the keenness of its beak, and therefore laid it on 

 a rock in the sun, where no doubt it soon recovered. 



It must not be supposed that this was any feat of 

 skill in the marksman. It would have been perfectly 

 easy to procure hundreds in the same way. Our 

 friend assured us that he had himself knocked down 

 six with one stone ; and that he had seen twenty-seven 

 bagged from a single shot with an ordinary fowling- 

 piece, not reckoning many more which were knocked 

 over, partially wounded, but which managed to fly 

 out to sea. 



We walked on a few rods farther. The character 

 of the declivity continued pretty much the same ; but 



