The Zoologist — January, 1871. 2427 



and toddle along the grassy slope ; but as I have before described 

 their breeding-places 1 need not recapitulate. I had many a talk 

 with Mac, who also took notes of the arrival of the birds, and he 

 said that when the young are hatched, the puffin goes to sea and 

 catches "soils," or young herrings not exceeding one inch in 

 length, and carries them by their heads, the tails jHojecting on 

 each side of the bill, sometimes taking as many as twenty at once. 

 Proceeding to the hole, it lays down all the fishes and gives the 

 young birds one at a time till they are all eaten. When the female 

 is hatching the male feeds her in the same way. The young are 

 generally three weeks old before they are seen at the entrance of 

 their holes: in fine weather they may be often seen sitting at a 

 little distance from the hole ; they can then run as fast, or even 

 faster, than their parents, and being enticed down to the sea by 

 the old birds they leave the island in three or four days. 



The habits of the razorbill and guillemot are very similar; they 

 both take about three weeks and four days from the time they are 

 hatched until they leave the islands. When once they are enticed 

 down they do not return again to the rocks; not being full fiedged 

 ihey could not very well fly up. They generally fly down to the 

 sea before sunrise : I have seen scores fly down to the sea on a fine 

 morning. At the time they leave they are not full fledged, only the 

 wing and tail being feathered ; the neck and line of the spine from 

 the wing to the tail is still downy. I observed one razorbill on 

 Sloch-na-page enticing her young one to follow her down to the 

 sea. I don't think it got any food that day, as it ran about from 

 one bird to another, crying all day and all night: until nearly day- 

 light it was still crying, but by the time I put out the light it was 

 nowhere to be seen ; doubtless the mother had returned about that 

 time and enticed it off with food.* Sometimes when the young one 

 is obstinate the mother will take it by the back of the neck and fly 

 down to the sea : it is great fun watching the old bird teaching 

 the young to dive; the mother takes it by the neck and dives 

 with it; up comes the young one again, only to get another dose ; 

 but the young bird cannot remain so long under water as the 

 mother, and it often dodges her by diving for an instant. The 

 young birds remain in the sea for one or two days, when they 

 all prepare to leave, the old birds getting restless and taking 

 short flights. One can generally tell the night before they leave, 

 as they make such a noise : should the wind be favourable they 



