14G THE ZOOLOGIST. 



plumage, and had light-coloured feather edges. The entrance to 

 this cave is narrow, and the bird could not make up its mind to 

 pass us ; so it remained where it was, shuffling its feet and 

 shifting about uneasily. At last, when we came further in, it 

 flew to a ledge on the other side of the cave, and then, as we 

 landed on a shelf, slipped by us and darted out, being joined 

 outside by another, which we had not noticed before. It had a 

 pretty little twittering cry. 



Puffins, on account of the constant bad weather, were very 

 late in coming to the land in 1900. On May 17th I could see 

 them, with a glass, sitting as thick as flies on parts of St. Tud- 

 wal's Island, but they had only that day returned to the island, 

 having been away for five days because of the bad weather. Two 

 days later, when I landed on the islands, the Puffins were in 

 numbers on the land, and as I walked over the warrens many 

 came out of their burrows, where they were very busy. One 

 came out in such a hurry that it went head over heels down the 

 slope. Grating cries oi arrr and orrr came from below, probably 

 from mating or quarrelling birds, and occasionally I heard a cry 

 from birds sitting on the sea. I got my hand to the end of a lot 

 of burrows, and caught several birds — once two in the same 

 hole — but found no eggs, and only once some nest materials. 

 Birds could be heard hard at work scratching in the burrows. 

 Bearing in mind the statement that a Puffin underground will 

 take hold of the hand introduced into the burrow, and sufi"er 

 itself to be drawn out rather than let go, I gave several birds an 

 opportunity of doing this ; but, although I persistently fumbled 

 my fingers about their beaks, I could not induce one to take 

 hold. An experienced man, however, told me that the birds are 

 much more savage, and " bite " better when they have young, or 

 are sitting hard (but I have pulled out more than one sitting 

 bird without getting bitten) ; otherwise I should have thought 

 that possibly they did not bite much in the dark. For at all 

 times, ivhen they have been pulled out into the open, they bite, 

 or try to bite, savagely, and scratch too, inflicting surprisingly 

 severe wounds in the latter way. The Rabbits here (which are 

 numerous and tame) are not at all afraid of the Puffins. As I 

 sat at lunch close to a crowd of Puffins outside the burrows, I 

 saw several young and old Rabbits come out and sit about 



