236 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XI. 
Islands are larger than British Puffins. It is true that it is — 
a very small series. but it is, after all, more convincing than ~ 
what is avalable from Chitseeaaeead. and it is supported 
by statements in other books. I doubt very much whether 
Puffins from northern Norway differ from those of Christian- 
sund, which, though 350 miles further south, probably 
belongs to the northern fauna; in fact, Messrs. Sclater and 
Praed called it themselves ‘‘ N. Norway,’’ while they seem 
now to think that it belongs to southern Norway, which is 
of doubtful limitation. Moreover, if there is a “ progressive 
diminution in size on the Norwegian coasts as we go south ”“— 
which is not a general fact from which further conclusions 
can -be drawn—then the southern birds are not the same 
as the northern ones, and might well be separated, as the 
diminution would probably not. be continuously progressive. 
The point, however, which seems to be most important 
to the authors of the note on p. 214 is that the type locality 
of Linneus’s Puffin is not fixed, and they say that. until 
this is done ‘“‘ and it is proved that the southern Norwegian 
bird is as large as the northern one,” they “* prefer to use the 
Linnean name for the British Puffin.” 
This uncertainty is, to some extent, removed by my 
herewith designating as the type locality of Linnzeus’s Alea 
arctica the Vesteraal Islands. If this is done we are, in my 
opinion, not only justified in separating the British Puffin, but 
we must do so, even if birds from Southern Norway should be 
smaller than t} ose from the Vesteraal Islands. The designation 
of the Vesteraal Islands as the terra typica is not mere arbitrary 
choice, but quite justifiable. Linnzus said: ‘ Habitat 
in rupibus et precipitiis montium maris atlantici, presertim 
in insulis.””. It is on the islands of northern Norway where 
the Puffin breeds in millions and is an important article of 
food, while it is only found in comparatively small numbers 
in the south. 
Nilsson, in Ornithologia Svecica, Vol. IL., p. 140 (1821), 
quotes only the Lofoten Islands and others more to the 
north of them as being inhabited by innumerable flocks, 
southern Sweden only as being occasionally visited in winter, 
and of southern Norway he says nothing. It is therefore 
more likely that Linné examined specimens from where 
millions live than from where it is rare and local. 
It is curious that Messrs. Praed and Sclater should feel 
that in this case [ go too far in “ speciation,” as many modern 
American and European Ornithologists now go further than 
Tin separating subspecies (and even species !) on very “ slight ’ 



