228 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



but also by one young bird, evidently her offspring, and by t^vo 

 adult birds, presumably the two birds which spent last winter 

 on the Eden, the latter being accompanied by two young birds, 

 apparently their offspring. These seven Swans did not stay 

 over-night on the river, and six of them only returned the 

 following day, one of the adults of the pair with the two young 

 being missing — evidently some accident to which wild birds are 

 too frequently subject had overtaken one of the parents — and 

 the two young Swans have continued to be attended by one 

 adult only, the surviving parent. Two days later two more 

 adult Whoopers made their appearance, perhaps the remainder 

 of the herd to which our bird had become attached. These 

 eight wild Swans have remained on the river during the whole 

 winter, and at the time of writing are still with us. 



The Puffin {Fratercula arctica), although a breeding bird all 

 round our coasts, and especially numerous on some parts of the 

 west coast, is not a common visitor to the Solway. Still it 

 occasionally occurs, generally as a derelict on the shore, but 

 sometimes as an exhausted bird picked up inland. We have 

 twice known it picked up alive in the Solway district, the last 

 being one in the early months of 1910, which was placed in our 

 aviary, where it lived for several months. It at first evinced 

 little desire for food, and refused all the dainties set before it in 

 the shape of live and dead fish, &c., but after having had two or 

 three mealworms placed in its mouth, it developed an appetite 

 for those grubs which eventually became of alarming dimensions. 

 It later began to take other food, live minnows and portions of 

 fresh fish, but not if there was a mealworm about. He was in 

 full nuptial or summer dress when obtained, with the curious 

 wrinkled, orange-coloured skin around his eyes and at the corners 

 of his mouth ; his beak had the large horny casing with its orange 

 and blue coloration which reminds one of an abnormally deve- 

 loped parrot's beak. This horny covering is part of the summer 

 dress and is cast off in the autumn. This particular bird began 

 casting his horny casing on August 19th. 



It was a peculiar and interesting pet, becoming quite tame 

 and taking mealworms and fish from the hand ; but although a 

 small pond in the aviary was stocked with minnows for his 

 especial benefit, Billy, as he was called, could not be induced to 



