326 Account of the Mode in which 
freckles. ‘The birds merely collect a few pieces of dried 
grass, with a feather or two, barely sufficient to prevent the 
eggs from rolling or moving on the rock. ‘That of the Manks 
puffin (the bird laying but one) i is of a very round shape, and 
uniformly white, very much resembling that of ahen. These 
birds very often excavate a small hole, if the stratum is soft 
enough to admit of it, like the common puffin (4’ca arctica 
L.), by means of their small sharp claws, on the ground of 
which they deposit their single eges. 
The north-eastern side of the island is principally occupied 
by the arctic gulls (Léstris parasiticus Z.), which breed there 
very plentifully upon the low and mossy levels, by the edge of 
asmall lake or pond. As the young were already hatched, I 
had an opportunity of observing them, several of which I 
discovered concealed in the long grass ; and, although many 
of them were covered with nothing but down, still Ake blue 
legs and black toes were very distinct, which corroborated, 
beyond all doubt, the surmises that the arctic gull and Black: 
toed gull (Léstris crepidatus Z.) are the same: in fact, I after- 
war ds, in the other islands, shot many of them upon the 
breeding grounds of the arctic gull. Some had not lost the 
down off their heads, and were a beautiful light-brownish co- 
lour, distinctly bar red, and spotted with black ; ; and in some, as 
the bird advanced in growth, the brown colour was gradually 
disappearing, until, in many specimens, only a very few brown 
marks were diccereible: : the middle tail-feathers commenced 
to ‘elongate, and the bluish cast of the legs became darker, 
and indistinctly blotched with blackish spots; whence I am 
led to conclude that they ultimately become black, and assume 
the rough appearance peculiar to the Léstris genus. 
I am, Sir, &c. 
RicHarp Drosrer. 
Morston, Holt, Norfolk, May 5. 
Art. IV. An Account of the Mode in which the common Frog 
takes its Food. By the Rev. W. T. Bree, A.M. 
Sir, 
I suppose there can be no one of your readers who has 
not repeatedly seen the common frog; and perhaps very few 
of them, comparatively, who have ever seen the animal in the 
act of taking his food. As I do not at this moment recollect 
to have met with any particular account of the operation in 
books of natural history, it occurs to me that a short notice of 
