285 



fine old bird in Captain Longe's collection was picked 

 up after a heavy gale, in April, 1858, on Winterton 

 beach, and about the same time another was found at 

 Yarmouth. It will be seen also by reference to p. 278 

 that a few of these birds were observed amongst the 

 mass of sea birds washed up on our coast in May, 1856 ; 

 others were obtained in 1867, 1868, and 1869. An imma- 

 ture puffin was picked up inland, at Cawston, about the 

 middle of March, 1876 ; and another on the coast, on 

 the 29th of the same month ; many were found dead on 

 the shore, at Cromer, in the spring of 1878 ; and two 

 were sent to Norwich to be preserved, on the 4th De- 

 cember of the same year. In May, 1879, Mr. Stevenson 

 records (" Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc.," iii., 

 p. 133) several examples sent to Norwich for preserva- 

 tion in the second week of that month : " They were, for 

 the most part, in very poor condition, though rich in the 

 colouring of the bill ; and, in the absence of gales, or 

 hard weather, their emaciation was probably due to 

 some disease, as with the razorbills and guillemots." I 

 have no doubt many other examples have been met with 

 of which I have no record; probably few years have 

 passed without such occurrences, but never in any 

 numbers except under stress of weather as before ex- 

 plained, and sufficient examples have been mentioned 

 to indicate at what seasons, and under what circum- 

 stances, they are generally met with. 



remarkable a feature deserves. Mr. Newman, in the "Zoologist " 

 for 1862 (p. 8004), and Mr. Blake-Knox shortly after (p. 8331), 

 referred to the subject, but no results followed; the examples 

 figured by them were also, I believe, birds of the first winter, and 

 their bills were quite different in appearance from that of the adult 

 after the shedding process so well described and figured (Fig. 2) 

 by Dr. Bureau (cf. Mr. Harting's translation of his paper, "Zoolo- 

 gist," 1878, p. 233), some very interesting examples undergoing 

 which change I had the opportunity of examining last August ; 

 none, however ? had fully completed the transformation. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Cordeaux and Mr. Hancock, as quoted by Mr. Dresser 

 in his "Birds of Europe," the puffin is found by the fishermen 

 off the north-east coast all the year round, and as this species 

 probably does not become fully adult till the end of the second 

 or third year, it would be interesting to obtain examples showing 

 the various stages of development, and at various seasons of the 

 year, of that most singular organ. 



