PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 11 



and marked by two deep grooves, while a similar groove, yellowish in colour, 

 bounds the front of the triangular plate of blue-grey. The lower jaw is blue-grey 

 at the base, bounded anteriorly by a raised margin of dull creamy white ; at its tip is 

 a conspicuous notch. On the upper eyelid is a triangular horny plate of blue-grey, 

 and along the lower lid runs an oblong horny plate of the same hue. The rim of the 

 eyelid is red, and at the gape is a rosette-like wattle of red. At the autumn moult 

 the horny plates of the eyelids, the fillet at the base of the upper jaw, and the 

 blue plates, are shed, thus materially reducing the size of the beak (see p. 51). 

 The juvenile plumage differs from that of the adults in having a large dark patch 

 in front of the eye, while the beak is much smaller, dagger-like, and lacks the 

 brilliant coloration of that of the adults. The down (protoptyle) dress is of a 

 uniform greyish brown, the breast white. This down is of great length, woolly in 

 character, and probably represents both proto- and mesoptyle generations, [w. p. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles, the puffin, like the guillemot and 

 razorbill, is chiefly confined to those parts of the coast where cliffs are found, so 

 that it is absent from the low shores of Lincoln and East Anglia. It is not found 

 in great numbers on the south coast of England, but on the other hand is met with 

 in enormous colonies in the west of Scotland and many parts of the Welsh and Irish 

 shores, also on the Scillies. Outside the British Isles it breeds in the Faeroes, 

 along the Norwegian coast, and in Bohuslan on that of Sweden, in Russian Lap- 

 land, on the west side of Novaya Zemlya according to Buturlin, as well as in 

 Iceland, while an allied race, F. arctica glacialis, occurs in Spitzbergen, as well as 

 in Greenland up to 70 N. Formerly many nested on Helgoland, while it is plentiful 

 in some of the Channel Islands, and also breeds in Brittany, and it is possible that 

 some also nest on the Berlengas. On the west side of the Atlantic its southern 

 limit appears to be the Bay of Fundy. The winter quarters of this species extend 

 to the New England States in N. America, and to the Azores, Canaries, and the 

 Western Mediterranean on the east side. [F. c. E. J.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor to our coasts, and uncommon in British 

 waters during the winter months. Of the nature of its journeys almost nothing is 

 known: as regards its return to its breeding-places, the late Professor Newton 

 remarked, " Foul weather or fair, heat or cold, the puffins repair to some of their 

 stations punctually on a given day as if their movements were regulated by clock- 

 work " (Dictionary of Birds, 1896, p. 558). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Most nests of this species are to be found in burrows 

 two or three feet long in the turf near the top of cliffs, but occasionally eggs may 



