BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE PUFFIN. 



MULLET, COULTERNEB, SEA-PARROT, POPE, OR WILLOCK. 



(Mormon Fratcrcnla, Temm. Macareux moine, 

 Temm.) 



THE Puffin weighs about twelve ounces, and 

 measures twelve inches in length, and twenty-one 

 in breadth. Its singular bill looks not unlike a 

 kind of sheath slipped over both mandibles, and 

 from its appearance, the bird is not improperly 

 named Coulterneb, or Knife-bill. At the base, 

 where it is about an inch and a half in depth, it 

 is rimmed with a white callous border, the two 

 corners of Avhich project above the brow, and below 

 the chin. It is about the same in length, curved 

 towards the point, compressed vertically, very flat, 

 and transversely furrowed on the sides ; the half of 

 it adjoining to the head is smooth, and of a fine 

 lead-coloured blue; the other part, to the tip, red: 



