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Cuass II. PUFFIN AUK. 
from their holes, and take possession of them 
till thegr departure from the isle. Those which 
form their own burrows, are at that time so in- 
tent on the work as to suffer themselves. to 
be taken by the hand. This task falls chiefly to 
the share of the males, for on dissection ten out 
of twelve so employed proved of that sex. The 
males also assist in incubation; for several were 
found sitting. The first young are hatched the 
beginning of July, the old ones shew vast affec- 
tion towards them, and seem totally insensible 
of danger in the breeding season. If a parent 
is taken at that time, and suspended by the wings, 
it will in a sort of despair treat itself most cruelly 
by biting any part it can reach, and when it is 
loosed, instead of escaping, will often resort to 
its unfledged young; this affection ceases at the 
stated time of migration, which is most punc- 
tually about the eleventh of August, when they 
leave such young as cannot fly, to the mercy of 
the Peregrine Falcon, who watches the mouths 
of the holes for the appearance of the little de- 
serted puffins which forced by hunger are com- 
pelled to leave their burrows. The Rev. Hugh 
_ Davies, of Beaumaris, to whom I am indebted 
for much of this account, informed me that on 
the twenty-third of dugust, so entire was the mi- 
155 
