BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 187 



the other on the 9th of November in that year. I 

 have one in winter plumage, taken on the decoy at 

 Ashby in the latter part of 1864. 



In the autumn of 1863 very large flocks of the 

 Little Auk appeared off the coast of Durham and on 

 the river Tees; and many were at that time procured*. 



243. FRATERCULA ARCTICA (Linnaeus) . The Puffin. 

 Provincial. Coulter-Neb, Sea-Parrot. 

 Nests annually in immense numbers on the Flam- 

 borough rocks. The Puffins do not arrive at their 

 breeding-haunts until after the Guillemot, Razor- 

 billed Auks, and Kittiwake Gulls. I have rarely 

 met with any off the rocks before the middle of April, 

 the main body, as a rule, not arriving at their nesting- 

 stations before the first week in May, and commencing 

 laying about the end of that month. Mr. Bailey, of 

 Flamborough, says that he has occasionally met with 

 Puffins off the cliffs in February. The fact is, as our 

 fishermen have told me, some Puffins may be found 

 far from land in the North Sea throughout the winter. 

 In long-continued storms, like other sea-birds, they 

 come nearer to the coast, and are then sometimes 

 killedjwithin the Humber. 



* Mr. St. John, in his ' Natural History of Moray,' p. 4, says 

 that " the Little Auk visits us at irregular intervals, and on 

 these occasions generally comes in great numbers, being found 

 at the mouth of every stream, and not unfrequently in ponds, or 

 even lying disatyed and worn-out in fields some distance from 

 the sea," 



