THE PUFFIN. 437 



size of the bill of this species the depth varying from one inch 

 to one inch and a half. In July, 1867, four specimens were 

 examined on Ailsa Craig by Mr Anderson and myself, 

 which at first sight resembled a nearly allied species 

 Fratercula gladalis (Leach.) The bills of these birds at once 

 arrested our attention on account of their superior strength and 

 size, as we glanced over the rows of dead Puffins lying in the hut. 

 Some of the fowlers believed them to be males, and seemed 

 anxious to impress upon us the fact that as only four were found 

 in five hundred that had been taken in the nets, the female must 

 alone undertake the duties of incubation. Differences in the 

 birds themselves have been observed elsewhere. In a very 

 interesting paper by Mr Elwes, published in the Ibis for 1869, 

 mention is made of considerable variation in the size of the Puffins 

 seen by that gentleman at Barra Head, and of one of the largest 

 having a bill greatly beyond the average size. There can be no 

 doubt that these large billed British examples are merely varieties, 

 as they fail to stand comparison with specimens of the true Fratercula 

 gladalis from Spitzbergen, which appears to be the head-quarters 

 of that species. A very beautiful figure of the bird, by Mr Wolf, 

 is given in the Ibis for 1865, to illustrate an excellent paper on 

 the birds of Spitzbergen, by Professor Newton of Cambridge. 



The following quotation from a History of St. Kilda, published 

 in 1764 by the Rev. Kenneth Macaulay, minister of Ardna- 

 murchan, would seem to point to a second species being a native 

 of that island in his day: "The Bougir of Hirta is by some called 

 the Coulterneb, and by others the Puffin. This is a very fine 

 sprightly bird in size, much like a pigeon; it seems to be conscious 

 of its own beauty, cocking its head very smartly, and assuming 

 great airs of majesty. Its colour is black on the outer parts, and 

 about the breast red and white ; the legs are red, and the beak 

 fashioned like a coulter, edged above and most charmingly 

 painted with red and yellow. Incredible flights of these Puffins 

 flutter during the whole summer season round about St. Kilda 

 and the two isles pertaining to it. Sometimes they cover whole 

 plots of ground, and sometimes, while on wing, involve everything 

 below them in darkness, like a small cloud of locusts in another 

 country. There are two species of them, the one larger and the 

 other smaller, with some other marks of diversity scarce worthy 

 of being pointed out. Their feathers are the softest produced 



