PLATE I 

 PUFFIN. Fratercula arctica 



June 4///, 1895. The nest from which this Plate is taken was photographed 

 from a burrow which I dug open to show the nest and the egg. Nearly all 

 the nests I examined on this island of the Fames had several large gull's 

 feathers in the nest among the grass and roots which lined the hollow to 

 receive the egg. On the Puffin island at the Fames, the surface of the rocks 

 is covered with a couple of feet of soft loose peat, in which the Puffins have 

 excavated myriads of burrows ; it is absolutely impossible to walk about in 

 the thick of the colony, as the soil gives way at every step, taking the 

 ornithologist up to his knees, and filling his boots with peat, besides being 

 rather dangerous to the safety of the unfortunate Puffins below. 



On a previous visit to the Fames I found most of the young birds 

 hatched, and it was most amusing to watch the old Puffins arriving at the 

 burrows, each with a sand-eel or small herring in his bill. Most of the young 

 birds sat up at the mouths of the burrows waiting to be fed, but hastily 

 scuttled away into the nest on my approach, appearing cautiously again after 

 a few minutes. The old birds were quite tame, and frequently alighted 

 within a few yards of me and disappeared down their burrows. I watched 

 one burrow, containing a single large young bird, for half an hour, and during 

 that time the old bird brought in no less than four fairly large young herrings. 



95 



