634- CLASS AVES. 



either on the bare ground, or on a bed composed of feathers, 

 and fine sea-weed, the female deposits, yearly, only one egg. 

 This egg is of a bulk very much disproportioned to the size 

 of the bird. 



The species Fratercula Arctica, which is the Puffin Auk 

 of Latham, is periodically a bird of passage on our coasts, 

 and on those of Holland and France, where it arrives in 

 March, or April. A great number of them perish in their 

 passage, and their dead bodies are driven on shore by the 

 wind. These birds are not frightened by the presence of 

 man, nor even do they shew much fear of shot. Their cry is 

 a grave sound, and their flight is sometimes considerably ele- 

 vated, notwithstanding the smallness of their wings. They 

 couple on the water, like the ducks, and towards the middle 

 of May, the females lay, in burrows, already made, or in holes 

 which the lightness of the soil enables them to excavate to 

 several feet in depth, a single white egg, as large as that of a 

 young hen, pointed at the end, and with ash-coloured and not 

 very distinct spots. We are informed by a French writer, 

 that when the female perceives any attempt to take away her 

 egg, she pushes it behind her with her feet, to the bottom of 

 the hole, and remains boldly at the entrance to defend it. 

 These birds retire in autumn, with their young. 



The yolk of the eggs, according to Fabricius, is good eat- 

 ing, and the flesh of the young is a tolerable meat ; but that 

 of the old exceedingly rancid and disagreeable. The natives 

 of the Kurile islands make ornaments with their bills, and 

 those of Oonalaska, vestments, with the skin and feathers. 



It is reported by Buch, in his Voyage to Norway and Lap- 

 land, that the natives have a singular mode of catching these 

 birds, when they are in considerable numbers. We quote it 

 here, but without pledging ourselves for its authenticity. 

 When, by the assistance of a noose, the fowler has succeeded 

 in getting out the foremost one, as each bird seizes the tail of 



