THE PUFFIN — THE AUK. 



213 



The Wild-Geese, in triangle-troops, from the fen, 

 With wing slow and steady, flew over the glen. 



isles J Ihey are used for refining sugar. They are also eaten by 

 the natives ; they are obtained by suspending a person to a rope 

 from the tops of the cliflPs. 



The Arcticuy Puffin, Coultemel, Lunda Bonger, Mullet, Bot- 

 tle-nose, Pope, Marrot, or Sea-Parrot, of which there are two va- 

 rieties, is, in length, about twelve inches; it inhabits the northern 

 seas of Europe, Asia, and America, in vast flocks; body black, 

 cheeks, breasts, and belly, white; bill red; legs red. Feeds 

 on fish and sea-weed ; flesh, except when very young, rank. 

 Appears on our rocky coasts in April;- egg one, which it lays 

 in the crevice of a rock or in rabbit burrows; also burrows oc- 

 casionally like rabbits, in order to lay its egg. The young are 

 sometimes caught with ferrets; they are preserved pickled. 

 They are found on Dover cliffs, where it is, indiscriminately 

 with the Razor-bill, called fVillock; off the coast of Anglesea, 

 6ic. They leave our coasts together with the Razor-bill and 

 Guillemot in September. 



The winter haunts of these birds have been heretofore meiely 

 conjectured. The late voyagers to the arctic regions, however, 

 inform us that they are found in great numbers on the open 

 waters of the polar seas ; that they there feed on insects ; and 

 where also they furnished the navigators with an agreeable 

 repast. 



The Impennis, Great-Auk, or Penguin, inhabits Europe and 

 America; is three feet long; timid; cannot fly, but dives admi- 

 rably ; feeds on fishes; head, neck, back, and wings, glossy 

 black; wings short, as though mere rudiments; legs black. 

 Found only in the most northern parts of the kingdom; said 

 to breed on St. Kilda. Egg one, white; six inches long; 

 sometimes irregularly marked or blotched with ferruginous, and 

 black at the larger end. 



The AUe, Little-Auk, or Greenland- Dove, is rather larger 

 than a blackbird ; its plumage is generally black above, beneath 



