Birds. 2911 



most convincing demonstration that the very contrary is the truth ; 

 that the flight of these birds is frequently at an elevation of some hun- 

 dreds of feet; and that it is performed with great swiftness, and 

 with a quickly repeated beat of the wings. That of the puffin, 

 or Tammy Norie, is especially rapid, and very much resembles the 

 settled flight of the snipe, after the cessation of those preliminary zig- 

 zags, which, in the case of that bird, are sometimes so annoying to 

 the sportsman. 



Many are unable, at any considerable distance, to distinguish 

 between the guillemot and the razor-bill. A well-marked and ob- 

 vious difference may, however, be at all times found in the colour of 

 their head and back. In the guillemot, these parts are of a delicate 

 mouse-brown hue, while in the razor-bill, they are of a decided 

 black. The bill of the latter is also much stouter, thicker, and less 

 pointed than that of the former, and has the additional distinction of 

 a pure white transverse furrow in the middle. Moreover, when fly- 

 ing, the razor-bill may be recognized by a conspicuous stripe of white 

 which extends along the outward extremity of the wing. The puffin 

 can scarcely be mistaken by the most careless spectator. The 

 rich colours of its bill and legs are at once sufficient to ensure it 

 attention.* 



effleurent assez rapidement la surface des mevs : " — " the birds of this genus fly less 

 than the guillemots ; nevertheless they are not destitute of this faculty, and they graze 

 rapidly enough the surface of the seas." Of the auks he speaks thus, " quelques es- 

 peces, parmi lesquelles on doit enumerercelle qui est la plus repandue en Europe, vo- 

 lent tres rapidement, mais le plus souvent en effleurant la surface des eaux :" — " some 

 species among which ought to be enumerated that (the razor-bill) which is distributed 

 the most largely in Europe, fly with great rapidity, but most frequently by grazing 

 the surface of the waters." In a note he corrects Cuvier for saying that the wings of 

 the razor-bill are so short as to prevent it from flying. Lastly, the birds in question 

 are represented by him as breeding only within the arctic circle. (Manuel d'Ornitholo- 

 gie, 2de partie, pp. 920, 932, 936). On the foregoing quotations, and with respect to 

 sea-fowl in general, all that I would wish to say in the case of Temminck is this, that, 

 so far as I have been able to judge, he has described very accurately whatever has 

 come immediately under his own personal observation ; but that, never having him- 

 self apparently visited any of the places where they breed, he has, in not a few parti- 

 culars, been misled by trusting to the compilations of those ornithological writers by 

 whom he has been preceded, — such, among others, as the eloquent but frequently in 

 accurate Buffon. 



* A specimen of the puffin being wanted for preservation, one single individual 

 was shot : it proved to be a very fine male. When newly killed, and as it lay on its 

 back on the calm surface of the sea, the legs and feet, as also the inside of the mouth, 



