BIRDS OF 



last sparkling drop, the feathers look as clry as if the bird had 

 never been under the water ; the fish is swallowed headforemost 

 with a peculiar jerking motion, and the bird again swims at ease 

 with the same graceful curve of the neck." 



FAMILY ALCID^E. AUKS, MURRES, AND PUFFINS. 

 SUBFAMILY FRATERCULIN^. PUFFINS. 



GENUS FRATERCULA BRISSON. 

 8 FRATERCULA ARCTICA (LINN.). 13 



Common Puffin. 



Adult male: Entire upper parts, and a collar passing round the fore 

 neck, black ; sides of the head and throat greyish-white; lower parts white ; 

 a horny protuberance on the upper eyelid. In the young the white of the 

 plumage is shaded with dusky, and the curiously shaped bill is less fully de- 

 veloped. Length 13 inches. 



HAB. Coasts and islands of the North Atlantic, breeding from France 

 and the Bay of Fundy northward, South in winter to Long Island and occasion- 

 ally farther. 



Nest in a burrow underground, or in a hole among the rocks, one egg, 

 brownish white. 



The Puffin is essentially a bird of the sea coast, which it 

 seldom leaves except under stress of weather. They breed in 

 immense numbers in Labrador, Newfoundland, and sparingly 

 in the Bay of Fundy. In winter they scatter along the sea coast 

 and are found as far South as Long Island. In the report of 

 The Ottawa Field Naturalists Club for 1882 and 1883, it is stated 

 that "A young bird of this species was shot on the Ottawa, 

 towards the end of October, 1881. It had probably been blown 

 inland by a severe storm which took place some days previous." 

 This is the only Ontario record we have of its occurrence so far 

 from the sea. 



32 



