182 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



as accidental visitants ; there is one specimen, 

 however, in the Museum, which, judging by the 

 bill, must have been killed in the winter, or, at all 

 events, to quote Dr. Bureau, " apres la saison des 

 amours." Dr. Bureau, in a very interesting paper* 

 on this curious change, or rather moult, which 

 takes place in the bill of the Puffin, and which has 

 been translated into the ' Zoologist ' for 1878, where 

 a plate showing the changes is given, says that 

 Puffins are cast ashore on the coast of Brittany 

 during the winter, for he says they leave the coast, as 

 I believe they do that of the Channel Islands, and 

 the only indication of their continuing there is that 

 dead birds are rolled on the shore after severe gales 

 in the autumn and winter ; and " these birds are 

 clad in a plumage different to that worn by those 

 we get in the breeding-season. In the orbital 

 region, for instance, they have a spot, more or less 

 large, of a dusky brown ; they have not the red 

 eyelids, nor the horny plates above and below the 

 eye, nor have they they the puckered yellow skin 

 at the base of the bill, and, what is still more 

 remarkable, the bill is differently formed ; it is 

 neither of the same size, shape, nor colour, and 

 the pieces of which it is composed are not even the 



* ' De la Mue du Bee et des Oruements Palpebraux du 

 Macareux Arctique apres la Saison des Amours.' Par le 

 Docteur Louis Bureau ; ' Bulletin de la Societe Zoologique 

 de France.' 



