PUFFIN. 475 



for migration arrives, such young birds as cannot then fly 

 are deserted. Puffins when on land rest on the whoje 

 length of the foot and heel, as represented in the illus- 

 tration, and walk in consequence with a waddling gait, but 

 they fly rapidly for a moderate distance, and can swim and 

 dive well. They feed on marine insects, small Crustacea, 

 and young fish. I have seen old birds when they had a 

 young one to feed, returning to the rocks with several 

 small fish hanging by the head from the angle of the gape 

 of the mouth. Mr. John Macgillivray says that at St. 

 Kilda many Puffins are taken when sitting on the rocks, 

 by means of a noose of horse-hair attached to a slender 

 rod of bamboo-cane. 



The Puffin visits various parts of Scandinavia, the Faroe 

 Islands, and Iceland ; it has been found as far as Nova 

 Zembla, and other high northern latitudes. East of this 

 country it is taken on the coasts of Holland and France. 

 A single specimen is recorded to have been taken at Genoa 

 in the winter of 1823, and M. Savi includes it in his his- 

 tory of the Birds of Italy. An example of this species 

 wanders occasionally, as if by accident, to Sicily and 

 Malta. 



The beak has the basal ridge yellow, the space in ad- 

 vance of the base bluish-grey, with three grooves and four 

 ridges of orange ; the naked skin at the gape is yellow ; 

 the irides grey, eyelids orange ; lore, chin, cheeks, and 

 ear-coverts white ; forehead, crown, occiput, a collar round 

 the neck, all the back, wings, and tail black, the wing- 

 primaries rather the lightest in colour ; all the under sur- 

 face of the body white ; legs, toes, and their membranes 

 orange ; the whole length twelve inches, of the wing six 

 inches. Both sexes alike in plumage. Varieties in colour 

 have been known to occur. 



