WATER FOWL. 399 



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 remote 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 three days, as it were to view and search out 

 for their former situations, 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 tempes- 

 tuous, and the sea troubled, the unfortunate 

 voyagers undergo incredible hardships ; and they 

 are found, by hundreds, cast away upon the 

 shores, lean, and perished with famine.* It is 

 most probable, therefore, that this voyage is per- 

 formed more on the water than in the 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 j and when it has some way pene- 

 trated the earth, it then throws itself upon its 

 back, and with bill and claws thus burrows in- 

 ward, 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 



Willoughby's Ornith. p. 526. 



