PYGOPODES. ( 307 ) ALCID&. 



THE PUFFIN. 



SEA PARROT, COULTER NEB, POPE, GULDER HEAD, 

 TAMMY NORIE, 1 MULLET, BOTTLE NOSE. 



Fratercula arctica. 



Yonder peopled rocks, 



To whose wild solitude, from worlds unknown, 

 The birds of passage transmigrating come. 



MALLET. 



MR. EGBERT GRAY says that the Puffin is a migratory bird, 

 and all those bred on the Bass disappear early in September, 

 by which time, however, or very soon afterwards, they are 

 replaced by other flocks from arctic waters. 2 



Although this species is found off the coast of Berwick- 

 shire at all seasons of the year, it does not appear to breed 

 at St. Abb's Head now ; but in former times a few pairs 

 nested there. Mr. Selby, in his " Notice of Birds observed 

 in the neighbourhood of St. Abb's Head on the 1 8th of July 

 1832," remarks that the Puffin " also finds appropriate holes 

 wherein to deposit its eggs. It does not appear, however, 

 to be very numerous, as only two or three individuals were 



1 "Norwegian noere signifies puellus, homuncio the boy, or mannikin." 

 Jamieson, Scot. Diet. Chambers, in his Popular Rhymes of Scotland, says that 

 the following couplet is repeated jocularly when a young man refuses to salute a 

 rustic coquette : 



Tammie Norie o' the Bass 

 Canna kiss a young lass. 



He adds that it is also customary to call a stupid-looking man a Tammie Norie. 

 Popular Rhymes of Scotland, new edition, p. 190. 



2 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol viii. p. 54. 



