852 BRITISH BIRDS 



The puffin is a spring visitor to our coasts, and after rearing 

 their young the birds scatter over the sea and journey southwards. 

 The puffins found on the east coasts of England and Scotland dur- 

 ing the winter months are probably migrants from more northern 

 latitudes. Puffins are found in summer in most localities on our 

 coasts where razorbills and guillemots collect ; on the south coast 

 they are rare, but increase as we go north, until at St. Kilda they 

 are found gathered in incalculable numbers. As a cliff-breeder the 

 puffin deposits its egg in a hole or cranny in the rocks like the 

 razorbill, but never on an exposed ledge, as the guillemot always, and 

 the razorbill sometimes, does. Sometimes they take forcible posses- 

 sion of rabbit-burrows among sandhills, driving the owners out; 

 but they prefer making their own burrows in a soft peaty soil, such 

 as they find at St. Kilda and in many other localities. In March 

 or April they return from their wanderings on the sea and begin 

 the great business of the year. "Where they are in large numbers 

 and make their burrows near each other the soft soil is so under- 

 mined by them that it is difficult to walk over the ground without 

 breaking through the turf and sinking almost knee-deep in their 

 holes at every few steps. When engaged in digging the birds are so 

 intent on their work that they may be approached very closely, 

 and sometimes even taken with the hand. The burrow is three or 

 four feet in length, sometimes more, and at the extremity a single 

 egg is laid, oval in form, large for the bird's size, and white, faintly 

 spotted and streaked with grey. The young bird is covered with 

 black down, and has a comparatively small beak, of a dark colour. 

 He is a squat, lumpish creature, owlish in appearance. When fishing 

 to supply its young the parent puffin has the curious habit and 

 faculty of keeping the small fishes it catches in its beak, where they 

 may be seen as the bird swims on the sea, their tails and a portion 

 of their bodies protruding at the sides of the beak and mouth. How 

 it manages to hold several little fishes in this way and go on diving 

 and catching others is a puzzle. On arriving at the burrow the 

 fishes are placed on the floor inside, or at the entrance, where the 

 young bird sits waiting for its parent, and are then picked up one by 

 one and put into the open, hungry mouth. 



