mandible ; the Ikin at the corners of the mouth is hard, and is 

 of a fimilar fubftance to the fheath, it is quite bare of feathers, 

 and forms when the bill is clofed a fmall fiar ; eyes fmall, 

 furrounded by irregular warty protuberances, which above 

 and below the eyes are hard as bone ; tail mort, it confifts of 

 fixteen feathers ; legs feathered to the knees, the legs (as is 

 common to the genus) are placed fo far behind, that the bird 

 cannot walk without great difficulty and repeatedly falling ; 

 claws ftrong, the infide and outfide ones are much curved, 

 and incline inwards, the middle ones are the longeft but lefs 

 curved, and incline outwards. Colours difpofed alike in both 

 fexes ; the bill in the female is about one-third fmaller than 

 that of the male, the colours of the bill vary according to age : 

 the young for the firft year have but very flight furrows. 



The Puffin appears on our coafts fome time in April, but 

 as it is not able to contend with florins, its time of arriving is 

 not certain, numbers have frequently been found dead on the 

 fhore after a ftorm ; at its arrival it is generally lean, but in a 

 week or two it becomes very fat ; it is met with on all the 

 rocky parts of our coaft ; immediately on its arrival it begins 

 to feek for a proper place to depofit its egg in fecurity ; mould 

 he furrounding country be of a light foil, it burrows in the 

 earth to the depth of from fix to eight feet ; it will frequently 

 difpoffefs a rabbit of its burrow to fave itfelf the labour of 

 forming one, its egg is white and is about the fize of thofe of 

 the hen. 



Thefe birds leave this country towards the end of Auguft, 

 and though they fhew during the time of rearing their young, 

 a remarkably ftrong attachment to them, they leave all 

 thofe that are not fufficiently ftrong to undertake the journey, 



without 



