THE MUTTON BIRD. 63 



No nest of any kind is used, but the egg is laid on the earth, at 

 the end of the burrow, so that, although it is at first beautifully 

 white, it becomes in a short time stained so deeply that it can 

 seldom be restored to its primitive purity. 



So deeply do the burrows run, that when a passenger is 

 walking near the edge of the precipice upon which the Puffins 

 breed, he can hear the old birds grunting below his feet, angry 

 because they are disturbed by the footsteps above them. 



The young Puffin has many foes, who endeavour to seize it 

 before its biU has attained its full proportions and its muscles 

 have gained their full powers. The parent birds, however, 

 bravely defend their young, and have been known, as a last 

 resource, to grasp the invader iu the beak, and hurl themselves 

 and the foe into the sea. Once among the waves, the Puffin is 

 in its natural element, for it is an admirable swimmer and 

 practised diver, being able to catch the swift-finned fishes and bear 

 them home to its nest. The foe, therefore, must either remain 

 on dry land or lose the victory, if not its life, for there are few 

 enemies for which the Puffin is not more than a match when in 

 the water. 



Mr. M'Gillivray, in his "Voyage of the Eattlesnake," gives a 

 curious account of the nesting-place of an allied bird, which 

 burrows in Goose Island, off the North Australian coast. 



" The rock is a coarse syenite, forming detached bare masses 

 and ridges, but none of considerable height. In the hollows the 

 soil appears rich, dark, and pulverulent, with much admixture 

 of unformed bird guano. The scanty vegetation is apparently 

 limited to a grass growing in tussocks, and a few maritime 

 plants. The ground resembles a rabbit warren, being every- 

 where undermined by the burrows of the Mutton Bird {Puffinns 

 hrevicaudus) the size of a pigeon. A person in walking across 

 the island can scarcely avoid frequently stumbling among these 

 burrows, from the earth giving way under his feet ; and I was 

 told by the residents that snakes are very numerous in these 

 holes, living upon the Mutton Birds. I myself trod upon one 

 which, fortunately, was too sluggish to escape before I had time 

 to shoot it, and ascertain it to be the well-known ' black snake' 

 of the Australian colonists {Acanthophis tortor), a very poisonous 

 species. 



