364 BRITISH BIRDS. 



FRATERCULA ARCTICA. 

 PUFFIN. 



(PLATE 45.) 



Fratercula fratercula, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 81 (1760). 



Alca arctica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 211 (1706) ; et auctorum plurimorum (Nau- 



mann), (Macgillivray), (Baird, Brewer, 8f Ridgway), (Dresser), (Sounders), &c. 

 Alca labradorica, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 550 (1788). 

 Alca canogularis, Meyer, Taschenb. ii. p. 442 (1810). 

 Mormon arctica (Linn.), Illiger, Prodr. p. 283 (1811). 

 Mormon fratercula (Briss.), Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 614 (1815). 

 Fratercula arctica (Linn.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. fyc. Brit. Mus. p. 42 (1816). 

 Lunda arctica (Linn.), Pall. Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat. ii. p. 365 (1826). 

 Mormon polaris, Brehm, Isis, 1826, p. 985. 

 Fratercula (Ceratoblepharum) arctica (Linn.), Brandt, Bull. Ac. St. Petersb. ii. p. 348 



(1837). 



The Puffin is one of the best known of British sea-birds, and is found 

 in all suitable localities along the entire coast-line of our islands during 

 summer. In rocky districts it is much more numerous than on low-lying 

 coasts, and it is especially abundant at Lundy Island, Priestholm off the 

 coast of Anglesey, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides (especially St. Kilda), the 

 Orkneys, Shetland, and the Fame Islands. It is also equally common on 

 the Irish coasts. 



The Puffin is a North- Atlantic species, ranging, during the breeding- 

 season, from Smith's Sound and the coasts of Labrador in the west, to 

 Spitzbergen and the Varanger Fjord in the east. It is a resident in Nova 

 Scotia, South Greenland, Iceland, the Faroes, and on the west coasts of 

 Eiirope from the North Cape to the mouth of the Tagus, though a consi- 

 derable number migrate southwards in autumn and others leave the shores 

 to feed out at sea. Its winter range in America extends as far south as 

 New York. It rarely enters the Baltic, and is not known to breed there ; 

 but in winter it wanders as far south as Gibraltar, and enters the Mediter- 

 ranean, where it occurs as far east as Italy. The Puffin increases in size, 

 especially in the height of the bill, the further north it is found ; and 

 examples from Spitzbergen and North Greenland may fairly be regarded as 

 subspecifically distinct under the name of Fratercula arctica glacialis *. 



* The synonymy of the Northern form is as follows : 



Mormon glacialis, Leach,fide Namn. Isis, 1821, p. 782, pi. 7. fig. 2. 



Fratercula glacialis (Leach), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xiii, pt. 1, p. 40, pi. 4. fig. 2 



(1825). 



Fratercula arctica, var. glacialis, Corns, Key N.-Amer. B. p. 340 (1872). 

 Fratercula arctica glacialis, Ridgway, Nom. N.-Amer. B. no. 743 a (1881). 



