PUFFIN. 131 



Yarrell's Brit. B. iv. p. 691 (1884); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. 

 B. Hi. p. 364 (1885) ; Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 691 

 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part x. (1889). 



(Plate CX.} 



Adult Male in Summer Plumage. General colour above black, 

 including the wings and tail ; the quills ashy-brown on their 

 inner webs ; head black like the back, with a narrow, faintly 

 defined line of grey round the nape ; the lores, eye-brows, 

 and sides of crown, sides of face, cheeks, chin, and upper 

 throat pale grey, a little darker at the base of the lower 

 mandible and on the chin, forming a kind of dusky moustachial 

 band; under surface of body, from the lower throat downward, 

 pure white, separated from the grey of the face and chin by a 

 broad black band across the middle of the throat, joining the 

 sides of the neck on either side ; under surface of the quills 

 and under wing-coverts light ashy ; axillaries and adjoining 

 feathers on the sides of the body blackish ; thighs ashy-brown ; 

 " the bill has the terminal half of both mandibles carmine, 

 followed by a narrow band of pale yellow, and the basal half 

 slate-grey, followed by another pale yellow band at the base of 

 the upper mandible, and a red one at the base of the lower ; 

 legs and feet orange ; iris hazel ; orbits carmine ; bare horny 

 skin above and below the eye slate-grey ; loose skin at the 

 gape yellow" (Seebohm). Total length, 13*0 inches; oilmen, 

 1-8; wing, 6-3; tail, 175 ; tarsus, 0-95. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male ; but with a somewhat 

 smaller bill. Total length, 12 inches ; culmen, 1-5 ; wing, 6'o; 

 tail, 1*65 ; tarsus, 0-9. 



Winter Plumage. The black shade on the face is present in 

 all the specimens killed in winter, so far as the British Museum 

 collection is concerned, even when the bill is developed to its 

 full size. Whether this is a sign of immaturity or whether it is 

 also a mark of winter plumage in the adults, I am unable to 

 say for certain. By the shedding of the ornamental portions 

 of the bill, the latter is very much smaller in winter than in 

 summer. 



Nestling. Covered with sooty-black down, with a large patch 

 of creamy-white on the belly. 



K 2 



