Puffin Island 



playing over the burrows is a sufficient test of 

 one's zeal. 



We found a square shaft which had been sunk 

 perpendicularly through the ground and the rock to 

 a rocky platform that opened to the sea. This rocky 

 chamber may well have been a smugglers 1 store- 

 room, for traditions of smuggling still linger in 

 these parts ; or the shaft may have served as a sink 

 for the disposal of refuse by the body of priests who 

 once inhabited the island, which has a second name 

 Priestholm. I got into the mouth of this shaft to 

 photograph, and whilst I was there the birds flew 

 incessantly over me, so near that I could distinguish 

 every detail, the bright red feet being particularly 

 noticeable. When I had been there some time, I 

 noticed a burrow in one corner of the shaft, and, 

 looking in, saw the white face of a puffin, which had 

 evidently been watching me as I photographed its 

 kindred. A puffin's face, as seen down a dark hole, 

 has not an agreeable aspect. I sought to convey this 

 impression to the bird in a mild way, upon which 

 she retired with an unearthly growl into her inner 

 chamber. The burrows are in general some eight to 

 ten feet deep, and the solitary young one which 

 each pair rears in a season, seems to take on some- 

 thing of the gloom of his surroundings, being 

 covered with black down, and having dull feet and 

 bill. The parent birds shed the coloured sheath, 

 which encloses a smaller, dark bill, before betaking 

 themselves to the sea after the breeding season. 



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