492 



2 



Obs. Specimens from the Mediterranean are undistinguishable from others from the Orkneys and Shetland ; 

 but some of the former are, if any thing, a trifle greyer in tinge of colour. 



This inhabitant of the ocean, appearing only to occur about the land during the breeding-season 

 and when driven in by stress of weather, has a tolerably extensive range, being found throughout 

 the Atlantic Ocean, and having also been met with on the east coast of Africa. 



In Great Britain it is tolerably common off the coasts, and breeds in numbers on some of 

 the islands off the coast of Scotland. It has been met with there breeding in all three groups of 

 the western and northern isles, in Skye, according to Mr. R. D. Graham, on Staffa, Iona, and 

 Treshnish ; and, according to Mr. Robert Gray, " it is a common species in the Hebrides, and its 

 breeding-places may be said to be numerous around most of the larger islands, such as Skye, 

 Mull, and Islay. Colonies have long existed near Dunvegan, on the Ascrib islands, Canna, Rum, 

 and Eigg, besides numerous other rocks and islands off the mainland, from Cape Wrath to 

 Ardnamurchan, and from that to the Mull of Cantyre. The most southerly breeding-station in 

 the West of Scotland is perhaps Ailsa Craig, where an old bird was caught, and a single egg 

 obtained, by the tacksman in the breeding-season of 1842." It breeds likewise off the English 

 coast ; and, according to Mr. A. G. More, Sir W. Jardine has seen small parties of this bird in 

 June off the Isle of Man, where they probably breed. It also breeds on Lundy Island and the 

 Scilly Isles, and, according to Mr. Harting, in the Channel Islands. This gentleman was also 

 informed by Mr. J. H. Gurney that it breeds on small islands off the coast of Pembrokeshire. It 

 only appears on the mainland under stress of weather, when individuals are driven on shore. 

 Mr. Rowe says that one was found alive in a court in Richmond Street, Plymouth, in December 

 1865, after a gale; and specimens have been obtained on most parts of our coasts at different 

 times after severe weather. In Ireland, according to Thompson (B. of Irel. iii. p. 418) it "is to 

 be met with at all seasons about some parts of the coast, and breeds in several of the islets. To 

 begin with its most northerly breeding-haunts, in 1832 we were informed that 'these birds 

 breed in great numbers in Tory Island [off the north-west of Donegal], in the rabbit-holes, like 

 the Puffins ; from which circumstance,' the writer adds, ' I have been able to get numbers of 

 them alive :' they scarcely ever approach the mainland. I was told by the late Mr. John Nimmo, 

 of Roundstone, respecting the Galway coast, that a few pair breed in Deer Island, and the 

 adjacent Hards, or Cruagh rocky islets. The nest is situated under stones, and a single egg 

 deposited on the ground." 



It has not, so far as I can ascertain, been recorded from Greenland ; but Professor Newton, 

 in Baring-Gould's ' Iceland,' says : — " Mohr mentions that he found two persons who knew this 

 bird in Iceland, but could tell him nothing of it. Herr Preyer says that he himself saw it 

 near the Vestmannaeyjar; otherwise I should have hesitated to include it here. It must be of 

 unfrequent occurrence." It is common in the Faeroes during the breeding-season, its principal 

 breeding-stations there being, according to Captain Feilden, the northern island of Fugloe and 

 Naalsoe, near Thorshavn. Mr. R. Collett says that small flocks are seen in the autumn on the 

 coast of Norway, from the Hvaloerne to Lofoten, and occasionally a straggler penetrates up the 

 fiords. Its occurrence north of Lofoten (60° N. lat.) has not been sufficiently authenticated ; and 

 it has not been found breeding on the Scandinavian coasts. In Sweden it is, Professor Nilsson 



