222 
ALCIDiE. 
Larne Harbour, county Antrim, are said to have been resorted to 
by numbers of these birds, annually, for the purpose of breeding, 
until of late years, when, owing to the erection of lighthouses, 
the puffins ceased to visit them.'* One of the names by which 
they were known there, and at the Gobbins, where they occa- 
sionally appeared, was Ailsa-cocJc, an appellation applied to them 
in the south-west of Scotland, and derived from their haunt 
on the Ayrshire coast. f Hr. J. D. Marshall, who visited the 
island of Eathlin, off the Giant's Causeway, in June 1834, in- 
forms us that — - “ These birds breed in great numbers at the 
Bull Point and headlands adjoining, where the rocks are based 
with mould, and intersected and covered here and there with 
patches of grass ; thus affording them facilities for scooping out 
their nests. These we found wherever the earth appeared among 
the rocks. They excavate or burrow in the mould to the depth 
of two or three feet; and, at the extremity of the excavation, 
the egg, which is white and about the size of a hen's, is deposited 
on the bare earth.J Prom being surrounded by the damp mould, 
it appears, when taken from the hole, of a dirty brown, but, on 
being washed, acquires its natural colour. The puffins seemed 
equally numerous as the razor-bills ; they took possession of the 
earthy parts, while the latter sat close beside them on all the bare 
ledges of rock not otherwise occupied. These birds, with a 
few guillemots, were met with in considerable numbers along 
* So early as the 24th of June, 1848, I was surprised to observe a young puffin 
of almost full adult size among the rejectamenta of the sea at Craigavad, Belfast 
Bay. Though exhibiting no appearance of having been injured, it remained within a 
yard of me, regardless of my presence, for a few minutes ; but the sight of my dog 
running towards me frightened it out to sea. 
When crossing from Groomsport to the Mew Island, at the entrance of this bay, on 
July 16, 1850, we saw two of these birds in company on the water, one of which 
flew off at rather too great a distance to be fired at ; but the other, not following its 
example, was shot. It proved to be a young bird of the year, and appeared equal in 
size to the other, which was probably its parent, as the bright orange red legs 
marked it to be an adult when it rose on wing. The young bird had pale flesh-coloured 
legs, and its bill had not attained full size. 
f The promontory of Oe, in Islay, is also annually visited by puffins. 
| I learn from Dr. Marshall, that the puffins’ burrows here must have been of their 
own making, the place being of such a nature that rabbits could not get either up or 
down to feeding-ground from it. 
