| 
214 BRITISH BIRDS. [VoL. XI. 
A NOTE ON THE BRITISH PUFFIN. 
REFERRING to our Note (antea, p. 162) on the races of the 
Puffin (Fratercula arctica), we should like first of all to thank 
Dr. Hartert for the very full and interesting explanation he 
has given of his reasons for his action in proposing to regard 
the British race as a distinct subspecies. 
At the same time we must confess that we are not altogether 
satisfied. 
In the first place we would point out that Dr. Hartert’s 
four Norwegian specimens (and he only has four) came 
from the Vesteraal Islands in N. lat. 69°., north of the 
Arctic Circle. The wings of the four measure respectively 
177, 168, 167, 166: average 169 mm. 
The four birds in the British Museum came from the 
neighbourhood of Christiansund, about N. lat. 63°, over 350 
miles further south. The one perfect specimen measures 161 ; 
the worn male is slightly less, but would not probably have 
exceeded 161 if perfect. 
From this we can infer with tolerable certainty that there 
is a progressive diminution in size on the Norwegian coasts 
as we go south, as is the case elsewhere. 
If this be so (and until. we are able to handle a larger 
number of Norwegian birds I do not see how we can assume 
anything else), how are we to settle where Linnzus’s bird 
came from ? Was it the northern larger bird from the Arctic 
or the bird from the south of Norway ? If the latter, and to 
our thinking this would be the most satisfactory conclusion, 
surely it would be unnecessary to give another name to the 
British bird, whose wing measures 158°5 against, say, 161, 
The fact is we have here a species which, like many others, 
becomes progressively larger as it goes further north. If 
we like to distinguish the two extreme forms by subspecific 
names, let us do so: there is some convenience in this course. 
It seems to us, however, to be mis-using nomenclature to 
make three subspecies—a large, and a small, and an inter- 
mediate one, differing only in the wing-measurement by a 
few millimetres. 
At any rate, until the type-locality of Linnzus’s Puffin is 
fixed and it is proved that the southern Norwegian bird is as 
large as the northern one, we prefer to use the Linnean name 
for the British Puffin. 
No one has a greater admiration than ourselves for Dr. 
Hartert’s work, which is characterised by such extreme accuracy 
and thoughtfulness, but we do feel that in the matter of 
the British Puffin he has gone too far in what the Americans 
conveniently term “‘ speciation.” W. L. ScLaTEr. 
C. W. MackworTH PRAED. 
ee 
