72 
are feathers to be found therein. The Barn-Owl at one time was a 
frequent occupant of the church spire in country districts, but is now in 
most instances earning that proximity to man is dangerous, and 
Is found seldom but in remoter woods and cliffs. The Barn-Owl is as 
infff " 3me denote j> white in colour, the head and back 
suffused with cinnamon and grey, with small black spots, breast 
and under parts white. This species breeds in holes, usually in a 
tree, where it brings up its young, six in number, laying its eggs in 
pairs at intervals, and thus there may be found in the same nest a pair 
of fully feathered young, a pair just emerging from the egg, and a 
in shaped GSgS ' I heSe ast are whlte with °ut markings, and round 
. Puf fi n — This bird presents in the breeding season when its beak 
is much enlarged, quite a humorous appearance. It is one of the 
marine diving birds with habits similar to those of the Guillemot and’ 
Razorbill, and breeds in similar localities. The Puffin, however lavs 
its solitary egg at the end of a short burrow in the peat which usually 
covers the tops of the small islands round our coast-line or the cliff- 
heads of the coast itself. The egg, when newly laid, is white 
with faint under-shell markings of pale brown, but speedily 
thiough contact with the peat, becomes stained and discoloured. 
colour of the bird is black above, and white underneath, the sides 
of the head a pale lavender, and the feet a brilliant red. The salient 
point of the bird is its bill, very large for the size of the bird, and in 
shape resembling that of the parrot. It is brilliantly coloured with 
red, blue, and yellow. The Puffin is in its habits pelagic, save at the 
breeding season, when it resorts in countless myriads to the remoter 
parts of our isles to breed. The Puffin feeds its young on the fry of 
certain fishes, and is particularly fond of the sand eel. The parent 
bird may be seen returning to the nest with numbers of this latter 
protruding from either side of the bill, each little fish neatly held just 
behind the head. The movements of sand eels are not wanting in 
alacrity, and it is interesting to conjecture how the bird retain? its 
hold of, say, the first nine caught, while capturing the tenth 
Razorbill— This bird derives its name from the likeness in shape 
of its bill to that of a razor, and this resemblance is greater than are 
many characteristics from which other birds have derived their names. 
In general habits and appearance the Razorbill closely resembles the 
Guillemot, but a visitor to its rocky haunts, where both species are 
invariably found associated, will soon perceive the two distinguishing 
features by which the Razorbill may be identified from the Guillemot 
viz. : its blunt bill instead of the awl-shaped weapon of the Guillemot,’ 
and by the former’s dense black colour as against the sooty brown of 
the latter. The Razorbill lays its solitary egg, reddish-brown or 
white in ground-colour, usually thickly spotted and speckled with 
black and brown, in a somewhat similar position to that affected by 
the Guillemot, but seeks a situation of greater safety, selecting a 
cranny or nook beneath some boulder, instead of the open, naked 
shelf on which the Guillemot deposits her egg. It is a moot point as 
to how this bird brings her young from the nesting-place, possibly 
zoo or 300 feet above the sea, down to the water. Some observers 
insist that they have seen the parent bird bearing the young one 
down perched on its back, but this seems improbable ; it is more 
likely that instinct will teach the nestling the confidence necessary 
for it to trust to its outspread wings, and by that means to convey 
itself down to that element thereafter to be so largely its home ; for 
this bird spends all the rest of the year from nesting season tonesting 
season at sea. & 
