Aas THE ZOOLOGIST. 
is known concerning the natural history of this bird, Dr. Bureau 
proceeds as follows :— 
“My ornithological excursions made me acquainted with two 
islands in Brittany, one the lle de la Manche, and the other the 
Ile de ’Ocean, which are still privileged to give refuge during 
the nesting season to hundreds of Puffins. 
“These two numerous colonies, the outposts of those which 
people the Northern Seas, furnished me with the materials for my 
study. 
“In the spring the Puffins assemble on these islands to devote 
themselves to the task of reproduction; they are then all in the 
same plumage and wear the same adornments (ornements). The 
cheeks are of a greyish white; the beak elevated, and thick on a 
level with the nostrils; a pleat (owrlet) at the base of the upper 
mandible; the lower mandible curved regularly; the eyelids 
vermilion, adorned with two horny plates (plaques); a large rosette 
(rosace) of a bright yellow at the gape. 
“By the middle of July the young are fledged, and towards the 
end of that month or the beginning of August the Puffins are out 
at sea. After that date not a single bird is to be seen on these 
rocks, which up to that time were so full of life. 
“The rough weather sets in, the Puffins leave the shore and 
disperse over the sea, and then supervenes a blank in their history, 
which is only filled up by rare captures. But soon the winds of 
winter begin to blow with violence, and after some days of those 
fearful gales which every year visit our coasts, the waves bring 
ashore hundreds of dead or dying Puffins. The victims are 
chiefly young birds, but the adults share the same fate if the storm 
arises at moulling time, when the simultaneous shedding of the 
quill-feathers reduces the wings to mere stumps. Three times in 
the winter of 1873, after storms (January 24th, February 6th and 
March 4th), M. Marmottan, at Cape Ferret, Arcachon, came 
across thousands of Puffins, dead, and rolled in the sand by the 
waves.* 
“The Puffins thus cast ashore on the French coast in winter are 
perfect skeletons, and clad in a plumage different to that worn by 
the individuals we get in the breeding season. In the orbital 
region, for instance, they have a spot more or less large, of a dusky 
* The same observation has been made by Willughby, in his ‘ Ornithology.’ 
