800i 



Birds. 



el la gorge d'un cendre plus fonce que ehez les vieux ; le large collier du cou nuance, 

 par (levant, de cendre noiratre; les pieds d'un rouge teme." This is certainly the bird 

 to which I desire to invite attention, but M. Temminck does not satisfactorily state 

 how he has ascertained it to be the young of the common puffin, and it is difficult to 

 conceive that a bird having such a beak as that shown in fig. 1 in February or March 

 should acquire such a beak as that shown in fig. 2 before the breeding season in May, 

 when the beaks of all the individuals breeding on our coasts certainly appear similar 

 both in form and colouring. In the newly-hatched young of the snipe tribe the beak 

 is short and dumpy, but acquires its normal proportions before the breeding season. 

 I ought to add that Brunuich, quite as familiar with these birds as Temminck, describes 

 the winter puffin as a distinct species, under the name of Alca deleata (Orn. Boreal, 

 p. 25). The difference in the size aud shape of the puffin's beak has not escaped the 

 notice of other naturalists. The late Mr. Stephens, in his continuation of Shaw's 

 'Zoology,' figures a bird under the name of the northern puffin ; the figure is drawn from 

 a specimen in the British Museum, obtained during Captain Ross's expedition in 

 search of a north-west passage, and labelled Fratercula glacialis by the late lamented 

 Dr. Leach. This bird has a larger beak than the common species, and Temminck, 

 who in his Appendix adopts it ftom Stephens, thus differentiates the two. " Le puis- 

 sant bee colore d'une seule teiute ; la grande rosace a Tangle de la bouche ; des nudiles 



Fig. 2. Fig. 1. 



oblongues au dessus et derriere 1'orbite, joints a des dimensions plus fortes, servent de 

 moven pour distinguer cette espece de la suivante.'' — (Temminck, iv. 580.) Gould 

 also, in his magnificent work, 4 The Birds of Europe,' part 21, figures it as distinct. 

 Mr. Selby, has, however, some admirable observations, which apply equally to the 

 northern puffin of Stephens and to the winter puffin now under consideration, two birds 

 which seem to depart from the normal or summer puffin in different directions. '* I 

 have found the beaks of different individuals on our coasts differ in depth and curvature: 

 in one, which was taken in its burrow, the bill measures one inch and a half in depth, 

 in the other scarcely one inch. In length they are nearly equal, by which the mandi- 

 bles of the larger-billed bird are made to appear much more convex than the other; 

 and in the former the keel of the lower mandible is also very strong and arched ; in 

 fact this specimen seems to possess the precise characters and relative proportions of 

 beak of the northern puffin figured by Mr. Stephens." With these quotations and 

 references I must leave the matter in the hands of my friends, but not without express- 

 ing the obligation I am under to the editor of the ' Field ' and to Mr. Bond for the 

 opportunities so kindly afforded me of examining specimens. — Edward Newman. 



