PUFFIN. 107 



barrelled guns and two sailors to assist me ; and I shot for one hour by 

 my watch, always firing at a single bird on wing. How many Puffins I 

 killed in that time I take the liberty of leaving you to guess. 



The burrows were all inhabited by young birds, of different ages and 

 sizes, and clouds of Puffins flew over our heads, each individual holding 

 a " lint" by the head. This fish, which measures four or five inches in 

 length, and is of a very slender form, with a beautiful silvery hue, exist- 

 ed in vast shoals in the deep water around the island. The speed with 

 which the birds flew made the fish incline by the side of their neck. 

 While flying the Puffins emitted a loud croaking noise, but they never 

 dropped the fish, and many of them, when brought down by a shot, still 

 held their prey fast. I observed with concern the extraordinary affection 

 manifested by these birds towards each other ; for whenever one fell dead 

 or wounded on the water, its mate or a stranger immediately alighted by 

 its side, swam round it, pushed it with its bill as if to urge it to fly or 

 dive, and seldom would leave it until an oar was raised to knock it on 

 the head, when at last, aware of the danger, it would plunge below in an 

 instant. Those which fell wounded immediately ran with speed to some 

 hole, and dived into it, on which no further effort was made to secure 

 them. Those which happened to be caught alive in the hand bit most 

 severely, and scratched with their claws at such a rate that we were 

 glad to let them escape. The burrows here communicated in various 

 ways with each other, so that the whole island was perforated as if by 

 a multitude of subterranean labyrinths, over which one could not run 

 without the risk of falling at almost every step. The voices of the young 

 sounded beneath our feet like voices from the grave, and the stench was 

 extremely disagreeable, so that as soon as our boats were filled with birds 

 we were glad to get away. 



During the whole of our visit, the birds never left the place, but con- 

 stantly attended to their avocations. Here one would rise from beneath 

 our feet, there, within a few yards of us, another would alight with a fish, 

 and dive into its burrow, or feed the young that stood waiting at the en- 

 trance. The young birds were far from being friendly towards each 

 other, and those which we carried with us kept continually fighting so 

 long as we kept them alive. They used their yet extremely small and 

 slender bills with great courage and pertinacity, and their cries i-esembled 

 the waihngs of young whelps. The smaller individuals were fed by the 

 parents by regurgitation, or received little pieces of fish which wei-e placed 



