BIRDS 447 



PUFFIN. 



Fratercula arctica (L. ). 



It is chiefly during the storms of winter-time that the Puffin 

 becomes numerous all round our coast-line. The Whitehaven 

 fishermen assure me that even in the breeding season they see a 

 few Puffins off St. Bees Head, and the description furnished of 

 their orange bills leaves no room for doubt as to the species ; 

 but though the glassy ledges at St. Bees are suggestive of 

 Puffins' burrows, in point of fact the species does not nest there. 

 In late autumn, on the other hand, a good many Puffins come 

 ashore, dead or moribund ; not in at all the same proportions as 

 the Guillemots, nor as numerously as even the Razorbills, but 

 still in pretty considerable numbers, from Silloth all round the 

 coast to Walney Island. Though the species must be vastly 

 more common than the Little Auk in the Irish Sea, it hardly 

 occurs inland as frequently as the Rotche. A Puffin which was 

 picked up dead near Kirkby- Stephen, in August 1885, had 

 travelled more than forty miles from the open sea. 



Order PYGOPODES. Fam. COL YMBIDJZ. 



GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 



Colymbus glacialis, L. 



The Great Northern Diver is generally reckoned a rare bird 

 on the waters of the N.W. of England, but single birds not un- 

 frequently visit our larger lakes, especially Windermere and 

 Ulleswater. Mr. W. Duckworth retains the feet of a Great 

 Northern Diver, shot on Windermere, Nov. 24, 1888. The 

 owner insisted on having the skin converted into a muff. 

 Another in full summer dress was killed on the same lake in 

 1889, in the month of August, as separately reported by Mr. 

 H. E. Rawson, Mr. G. A. Hutchinson, and Mr. W. Duckworth. 

 The Rev. R. Bower has a summer-dressed Great Northern 

 Diver, killed on the Eden above Appleby. A bird in winter 

 plumage, killed on Ulleswater, is preserved at Edenhall. A few 

 weeks before the bird was killed on Windermere in 1889 I had 



