WATER-FOWL 211 



guillemot, and the rest, cannot easily rise to the nest when in a lofly 

 situation. Many are the attempts these birds are seen to make to fiy 

 up to those nests which are so high above the surface. In rendering 

 them inaccessible to mankind, they often render them almost inac- 

 cessible to themselves. They are frequently obliged to make three 

 or four efforts, before they can come at the place of incubation. For 

 this reason, the auk and guillemot, when they have once laid their 

 single egg, which is extremely large for the size, seldom forsake it 

 until it is excluded. The male, who is better furnished for flight, 

 feeds the female during this interval ; and so bare is the place where 

 she sits, that the egg would often roll down from the rock, did not 

 the body of the bird support it. 



But the puffin seldom chooses these inaccessible and troublesome 

 heights for its situation. Relying on its courage, and the strength of 

 its bill, with which it bites most terribly, it either makes or finds a 

 hole in the ground, where to lay and bring forth its young. All the 

 winter these birds, like the rest, are absent ; visiting regions too re- 

 mote for discovery. At the latter end of March, or the beginning of 

 April, come over a troop of their spies or harbingers, that stay two or 

 hree days, as it were to view and search out for their former situa- 

 tions, and see whether all be well. This done, they once more depart: 

 and about the beginning of May, return again with the whole army of 

 their companions. But if the season happens to be stormy and tem- 

 pestuous, and the sea troubled, the unfortunate voyagers undergo in- 

 iredible hardships ; and they are found by hundreds, cast away upon 

 he shores, lean and perished with famine.* It is most probable, 

 herefore, that this voyage is performed more on the water than in 

 he air; and as they cannot fish in stormy weather, their strength is 

 exhausted before they can arrive at their wished-for harbour. 



The puffin, when it prepares for breeding, which always happens a 

 few days after its arrival, begins to scrape up a hole in the ground not 

 far from the shore, and when it has some way penetrated the earth, 

 it then throws itself upon its back, and with bill and claws thus bur- 

 rows inward, till it has dug a hole with several windings and turnings, 

 from eight to ten feet deep. It particularly seeks to dig under a stone, 

 where it expects the greatest security. In this fortified retreat it lays 

 one egg ; which, though the bird be not much bigger than a pigeon, 

 is of the size of that of a hen. 



When the young one is excluded, the parent's industry and cou- 

 lage is incredible. Few birds or beasts will venture to attack them 

 in their retreats. When the great sea-raven, as Jacobson informs us, 

 comes to take away their young, the puffins boldly oppose him. Their 

 meeting affords a most singular combat. As soon as the raven ap- 

 proaches, the puffin catches him under the throat with its beak, and 

 Slicks its claws into his breast, which makes the raven, with a loud 

 screaming, attempt to get away : but the little bird still holds fast to 

 the invader, nor lets him go till they both come to the sea, where they 

 drop down together, and the raven is drowned ; yet the raven is but 

 too often successful ; and invading the puffin at the bottom of its hole, 

 both the parent and its family. 



* Willoughby's Ornith. p. 326 



