264 
A MASKED BIRD. 
in rocky places, in whicli they nestle and rear their young ; 
their eggs are white, and generally there is but one in each 
nest, if nest it can be called. 
PUFFIN. 
Our Mr. Puffin, who measures about twelve inches in 
length, looks, as he stares you in the face from his rocky 
ledge, as if he had put on a mask to frighten you. The 
bill is like an enormously disproportionate nose, ridged or 
furrowed, and painted of various colours, the first, close in 
from the base, being a dull yellow, the second greyish blue, 
and the rest of the bill bright red ; it has a horny append- 
age above, and an elongated narrow plate below the eye, 
and looks exactly as if it could be taken off and put on at 
pleasure. The upper parts of the plumage are greyish 
black, the lower parts white, the sides of the head greyish 
white, the throat grey, and there is a band of brownish 
grey on the neck ; so that all the bright colours are lavished 
on that extraordinary appendage, the bill, which is as broad 
at the base as it is long, and of a roundish triangular shape. 
The Puffins make their appearance on our coasts fi:om the 
middle of April to the beginning of May, presently betaking 
itself to various breeding stations scattered here and there, 
from the British Channel to Shetland, and the remote 
