Class II. PUFFIN AUK. 155 



from their holes, and take possession of them 

 till their departure from the isle. Those which, 

 form their own burrows, are at that time so in- 

 tent on the work as to suffer themselves to 

 be taken by the hand. This task falls chiefly to 

 the share of the males, for on dissection ten out 

 of twelve so employed proved of that sex. The 

 males also assist in incubation ; for several were 

 found sitting. The first young are hatched the 

 beginning of July, the old ones shew vast affec- 

 tion towards them, and seem totally insensible 

 of danger in the breeding season. If a parent 

 is taken at that time, and suspended by the wings, 

 it will in a sort of despair treat itself most cruelly 

 by biting any part it can reach, and when it is 

 loosed, instead of escaping, will often resort to 

 its unfledged young; this affection ceases at the 

 stated time of migration, which is most punc- 

 tually about the eleventh of ^z/^i^,?^, when they 

 leave such young as cannot fly, to the mercy of 

 the Peregrine Falcon, who watchjes the mouths , ^^ 

 of the holes for the appearance of the little de- 

 serted puffins which forced by hunger are com- 

 pelled to leave their burrows. The Rev. Hugh 

 Davies, of Beaumaris, to whom I am indebted 

 for much of this account, informed me that ,qn 

 the twenty-third of August, so entire was the nair 



70 A 



