PLATE II 

 PUFFIN. Fratercula arctica 



June 1 1///, 1896. This Plate is taken from a photograph of a huge stack on the 

 north-east side of Lunga, Treshnish Islands. This stack is quite inaccessible, 

 as it is absolutely perpendicular for sixty or seventy feet above the sea, and is 

 separated from the main island by a chasm of that depth and some twenty 

 or thirty yards across. Just above this chasm is a slope of peaty soil, which 

 is absolutely riddled with Puffin burrows, while the cliffs below are tenanted 

 by many Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills, and Shags. The main island 

 also is thickly populated with Puffins at this point, and most of the rocks, 

 especially those on the stack, are crowded with little bunches of these birds. 



As I came up they flew off in hundreds, many of the birds appearing 

 from their burrows to see what the disturbance was. They flew round and 

 round in clouds, careering round and round the stack, and did not settle 

 down again for more than a quarter of an hour. None of the eggs on the 

 main island were hatched, though most of them were very highly incubated. 

 Of course I could not get at those on the stack, but I did not see the old birds 

 going backwards and forwards to the burrows with food, as they would have 

 been doing had there been young. As a rule, when the young are first 

 hatched, they are fed by their parents on half-digested food, which is dis- 

 gorged in the nest and administered to the nestling by the old birds. After 

 they get more advanced in age they are provided with the fry of herrings, 

 which are sometimes eaten at once and sometimes allowed to lie in the nest 

 for future use. 



VOL. II. 2 C 97 



