262 
MANX SHEAK WATER 
aliusve esculenti per totum diem deglutiverint, innato 
ventriculi seu calore seu alia quadam vi occulta in substan- 
tiam quandam oleosam (ut aiunt) facessit, cujus bonam 
partem noctu in pullorum ora evomunt, qui eo enutriti 
supra modum pinguescunt. Adultos quibus id muneris a 
soli Domino datum est cuniculis extrahunt ; et ut expeditus 
captorum numerum ineant, teneantque, pedem alterum 
abscindunt et reservant. Hinc orta fabula, Puffinos esse 
monopodes. Pullos duodenos novem plerumque denariis 
nostrae monetae vendunt, satis vili pretio. Eorum esum 
tempore Quadragesimae permissum aiunt, quod videantur 
quodammodo piscibus affinis, sapere scilicet carnis.' 
The colony had already been briefly mentioned in 
Camden (1586), and Chaloner, in 1656, had already given 
a quaint account of the ' Puffines ' of the Calf j ' nourishing 
(as is conceived) their Young with Oyl; which drawn from 
their own Constitution, is dropped into their mouths ; for 
that being opened there is found in their crops no other 
sustenance but a single Sorrel leaf, which the Old give 
their Young, for digestion's sake, as is conjectur'd ; the flesh 
of these Birds is nothing pleasant fresh, because of their 
rank and Fish-like taste ; but, pickled or salted, they may 
be ranked with Anchoves, Caviare, or the like ; but profit- 
able they are in their feathers, and Oyl, of which they make 
great use about their Wooll.' 1 
After this almost every describer of the Isle of Man has 
something to say of the ' Puffin,' bat little information is 
1 William Blundell, who came to Man in 1648, and whose manuscript, written 
about the same time as Chaloner's treatise, was published only in 1876 by the 
Manx Society, quotes the latter's account of the ' Puffins ' word for word, remark- 
ing : ' From hence (the Calf) have the islanders, I mean ye Manksmen, their 
puffins, which are here as numerous as in the Island of Bardsey, in the west 
point of Anglesey. Concerning those puffins, Mr. Chaloner hath made so per- 
fect, exact, and excellent an observation of whatsoever concerneth them, that I 
cannot omit to impart it to my reader, for his recreation as well as mine.' 
Shearwaters still breed on Bardsey (Zool., 1902, p. 16). 
