PUFFIN-CATCHING. 
265 
Hebrides. On tlie stupendous cliffs of Dover, Montagu tells 
us, and such other places, they burrow like rabbits, if the 
soil is light, but more frequently take possession of rabbits' 
burrows, and lay their eggs many feet under ground. So 
Mant describes it : — 
Wliere deeply in the sandy shore 
Their holes the burrowing Puffins bore, 
Sharp as the riving ploughshare, thrill 
The furrow with their knife-like bill ; 
Scoop outward, as with hollow hand, 
With palmate feet the muttering sand ; 
And form a subterranean keep, 
A winding chamber, long and deep. 
Speaking of the birds of St. Kilda, Mr. J ohn Macgillivray 
says, ^ By far the most abundant species is the Puffin, 
which breeds in the crevices of the rocks, as well as in arti- 
ficial burrows, in almost every situation, sometimes at a 
considerable distance from the water's edge. The bird is 
taken by the fowlers in two ways ; when in its nest, by 
dragging out the bird at the risk of a severe bite, and when 
sitting on the rocks, by means of a noose of horse-hair 
attached to a slender rod. The latter mode of fowling is 
generally successful in wet weather, as the Puffins then 
sit best upon the rocks, allowing a person to approach 
within a few yards, and as many as three hundred may be 
taken in the course of a day by an expert bird-catcher.' 
Yarrell says that ' the Puffin visits various parts of Scan- 
dinavia, the Feroe Islands, and Iceland ; it has been foun^d as 
far north as Nova Zembla and other high northern latitudes. 
East of this country, it is taken on the coasts of Holland and 
France; a single specimen is recorded to have been taken 
at Genoa in the winter of 1823.' 
Pennant mentions that, when the time for migration arrives, 
such young birds as cannot then fly are deserted. The eggs 
of the bird are white, about two inches and a quarter long, 
sometimes spotted with pale-ash colour. The young are 
hatched after a month's incubation, and at the end of ano- 
ther month or five weeks are able to follow their parents to the 
sea. Puffins, when on land, rest upon the whole length of the 
