THE PUFFIN AUK. 241 



Peculiar manners. 



move without tumbling. This makes it rise with 

 difficulty, and subject to many falls before it gets 

 upon the wing; but as it is a small bird, not much 

 bigger than a pigeon, when it once rises, it can 

 continue its flight with great celerity. 



The puffin auks build no nest; but lay their 

 eggs either in the crevices of rocks, or in holes 

 under ground near the shore. They most ge- 

 nerally chuse the latter situation. Relying on 

 its courage, and the strength of its bill, with 

 which it bites most terribly, it either makes or 

 finds a hole in the ground, where to lay or bring 

 forth its young. " All the winter," says Wil- 

 loughby " these birds, like the rest, are absent; 

 visiting regions too remote for discovery. At the 

 latter end of March, or the beginning of April, 

 come over a troop of their spies or harbingers^ 

 that stay two or three days, as it were to view 

 and search out for their' former situations, and 

 see whether all be well. This done, they onc 

 more depart ; and about the beginning of May 

 return again with the whole army of their com- 

 panions. But if the season happen to be stormy 

 and tempestuous, and the sea troubled, the unfor- 

 tunate voyagers undergo incredible hardships; 

 and they are found by hundreds, cast away upon 

 the shores, lean, and perished with famine. It 

 is most probable, therefore, that this voyage is 

 performed more on the water than in the air : 

 and as they cannot fish in stormy weather their 



VOL. IV. NO* 38. tH 



