280 ALCIIXflS. 



many being driven on shore and far inland, ns in 1895, 1000, 

 1910, and 1912. It has been met with occasionally in 

 summer. 



General Distribution. The Little Auk breeds in the islands 

 of the Arctic Ocean, from Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, 

 Spitsbergen, Iceland, Greenland, and the shores of Arctic 

 America west of the Kane basin and Baffin sea. In winter 

 it visits the North sea and Atlantic, being found occasionally 

 in numbers as far south as the Canary Islands and the 

 Azores ; on the west side it extends to Long Island and 

 occasionally to North Carolina and other parts of North 

 America. 



Genus FRATERCULA Brisson, On. vi. 17GO, p. 81. 



Type : F. arctica (Linn.). 



Frdtercfda, as if from fraterculus=& little brother, f rater. The mediaeval 

 name, from the bird's gregarious habits. 



Tratercula arctica. PUFFIN. 



Alca arctica Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 130 : Sweden. 



Fratercula arctica (Linn.) ; B. O. U. List, 1st cd. 1883, p. 208 ; 

 Off time- Grant, Cat. Birds .M. xxvi. 1898, p. 616; Saunders, 

 Manual, 2nd ed. 1899, p. 707. 



Arctica inhabiting the northern regions. 



Distribution in the British Islands. A Resident, breeding 

 on suitable sea-cliffs and on islands, arriving between the end 

 of March and May and returning to sea at the end of August. 

 Colonies are very numerous in the Outer Hebrides, the 

 Shetland and Orkney Islands, and the mainland of Great 

 Britain, except on the east and south coasts of England, 

 where they are confined in the east to the Fame Islands, 

 Northumberland, and Flamborough cliffs, Yorkshire, and 

 in the south, where comparatively few nest in the Isle of 

 "\Vight, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall. Many breed 



