THE PUFFIN. 227 



and none of them larger than newly-hatched chickens. Some of 

 the old birds, as if to exhibit their happiness, assume towards 

 each other loving attitudes, like those of doves when cooing. 

 There is a complete line of demarcation between the nesting- 

 places of the kittiwake and the herring-gull {Lams argentatus), 

 those of the latter being above the others, and the nests much 

 farther apart ; indeed, the herring-gull, though plentiful, is less 

 numerous than the smaller species. From the summit of the 

 cliff, where it approximates 500 feet in altitude, many eggs of the 

 razorbill are on the bare rock two or tliree yards below me, 

 wliile the birds themselves keep flying in and out of crevices to- 

 wards the summit of the rocks, within which their young are at 

 such a distance that they cannot be reached by the hand. Im- 

 mense numbers of puffins breed here, and they afford me an excel- 

 lent and near opportunity of observing them, as, within a yard 

 of the summit, many appear on the flat ledges of rock, while 

 others come flying up from the sea and alighting beside them, 

 quite regardless of my presence. A few yards down, others are 

 seen at the entrance of holes, like rabbit-burrows, though really 

 their own perforations. An immense bank of loose sandy earth 

 shooting down almost perpendicularly towards the sea, was 

 drilled by them so as to resemble a gigantic dove-cot. Every 

 bird of the myriads that I see of various species, excepting nest- 

 lings, is in full adult plumage."^ 



A pufiin, shot here yesterday, was bearing to its mate or 

 young, six fish, five of which were young Clupea, nearly six 

 inches in length, and the other, a sand-eel of large size. Several 

 more were remarked to be similarly well laden, and one bird had 

 hold of a fish nearly the size of a full-grown herring ; — ornitho- 



* On examining the coloiu- of the irides of the birds shot to-day, just as they were 

 killed, I fonnd those of the puffin, razorbill, and common gull {Larus canvs), to be 

 greyish •hazel ; of the chough, black ; oyster-catcher, black, sm-rouuded by a bright 

 red ring, as well as having the eyelid of that colour ; common tern {Sterna JuruHclu), 

 blackish ; rock-dove (Coluviha livia), whitish-brown. Tlie irides of a young cuckoo, 

 of adult arctic terns and kittiwakes, shot on the 12th of July, 1833, at the Skerries, 

 off Portrush, were of a very dark brown colour. 



Q 2 



