RAZOR-BILL PUFFIN. 233 



excuse to plead in one case, as game birds are shot at a time 

 when the young are not dependent upon them, and when shot 

 are of value as an article of food. 



Even were the habits of these birds otherwise than harm- 

 less, their wanton destruction is pitiable, and if a particle of 

 the strictness extended over the care of a few game were 

 used in the prevention of these excesses, all might be reme- 

 died, of which, as remarked in a correspondence with Mr. 

 Thompson, the owners of rocky islets and headlands, where 

 those birds frequent to breed, are highly culpable in permit- 

 ting such slaughter upon their property, places where in a 

 few years whole species will be extirpated, and known only 

 as occasional visitants to the island. 



Habitat Northern Europe. 



GENUS CVII. FRATERCULA (PUFFIN). 



SPECIES 225 THE PUFFIN. 



Fratercula Arctica. Stephens. 



Guillemot nain. Temm. 



Sea Parrot. Colliaheen. 



THE curious little puffin exhibits one of the most extraordi- 

 nary appearances of any of the birds in the family, as the bill 

 is enormously developed for the size of the bird. Although 

 it is a common species, the puffin offers no proportion to the 

 immense numbers of the razor-bills or guillemots in whose 

 company it is found. Breeding, like them, in communities, it 

 differs in the situation selected to nidify, as it chooses the 

 deserted burrow of a rabbit, or a hole excavated by the bird, 

 at the bottom of which their young are successfully hatched. 

 When holes in the earth are not obtainable, the puffin occa- 

 sionally selects clefts and fissures in the face of the precipice, at 

 the entrance of which they are often observed standing. Dis- 

 playing more activity on the wing and in the water than the 

 other birds of the family, the puffin offers many inducements 

 to observe its habits. Immediately on its arrival in spring 

 the breeding haunts are occupied, from which, like the razor- 

 bill, it seldom is found at a distance. Frequenting prin- 

 cipally the northern side of Lambay Island, on one occasion, 

 when a single bird was fired at, five or six issued from diffe- 

 rent clefts and sought the protection of the sea. In similar 

 situations on the west coast they occur in numbers, where 

 they are known by the familiar appellation ot " colliaheen," 

 or old woman, from their singularly old-fashioned appearance. 



