>6o British Birds, with their Nests .and Eggs. 



Mayen, Spitsbergen and probably Novaya Zemlya, and the more arctic parts of 

 the Puffins' range generally, belong to the larger stouter-billed F. arctica glacialis. 

 In the North Pacific our bird is represented by Fratercula corniculata in which the 

 appendage of the upper eyelid is produced into a long slender, acute, upright 

 horn. The Atlantic species in winter goes as far south as Long Island on the 

 American coast and in Europe down to the Mediterranean. It is found in the 

 Straits of Gibraltar from November to March and is said to linger near Tangier 

 as late as April and May. Gatke states that the Puffin used to breed on 

 Heligoland until the beginning of the " thirties," though its numbers were limited 

 to one or two pairs. The breeding pairs were netted one year, and since that 

 time none have bred there; but almost every spring several arrive with the 

 Guillemots and a few are generally shot. It is otherwise unknown at the island, 

 unless it be that a young autumn bird is killed once in a way at intervals of 

 many years. Professor Giglioli, writing of this species on the coast of Italy, 

 where it has occurred in every stage of plumage, mentions two caught as late as 

 the 27th May, and says he should not be surprised to hear that the Puffin 

 occasionally breeds in the Mediterranean. It has occurred at Syracuse and 

 Palermo ("Ibis" 1881, p. 221). 



The Puffin resorts alike to rocky cliffs, low grassy islands, and rocky islands, 

 for breeding purposes. It breeds in colonies, which are often of vast size, and 

 deposits its egg in holes and crevices in the rocks, in burrows excavated by itself 

 in light soil, or in the unused burrows of rabbits, under big rocks or masses of 

 broken rock and among the remains of ruined buildings, as for instance the 

 crumbling masonry of the battlements on the Bass Rock (Booth). At Flamborough 

 the Puffins delight especially in the shelves of bright green turf in the more 

 broken parts of the cliffs ; many breed about the " Saddle," a detached turf-topped 

 rock, and numbers in the " Contorted " part of the cliffs, where the stone is softer and 

 can be bored easily ; there are many rabbits in the cliffs, which probably furnish 

 some breeding sites. Mr. R. J. Ussher remarks that on the Saltees Puffins in 

 accessible places lay far within their holes, but that in faces of clay cliffs their 

 eggs can frequently be seen from without ("Zoologist" 1886, p. 891). On the little 

 Skellig their eggs have been found on the bare rock (" Ibis" 1891, p. 7). Laying 

 begins about the second week in May ; in the Shetlands not until the third week. 

 The single egg is sometimes deposited on the bare ground at the end of the 

 hole, but sometimes there is a trifle in the way of a nest of herbage, or down, 

 or feathers ; on Jan Mayen Island nests have been described as formed of quills 

 deposited in several layers in a circle and nearly covering the site. The 

 egg is white with a dull, slightl}'' rough surface, and is obscurely and 



