THE PUFFIN. 
223 
the range of white cliffs facing the south* and forming the 
northern boundary of Church Bay ; they were not, however* by 
any means so numerous as on the northern side of the Bull Point. 
The opinion prevails here* as elsewhere, that the puffins feed 
their young with sorrel* when they become* as it is stated* too 
fat to allow them to make their escape from their burrowed nests. 
This idea I conceived might have originated in consequence of 
the quantity of the plant not unfrequently found growing* as at 
Bathlin* in the vicinity of their nests.”* 
Of the Alcidee which frequent the high rocky parts of the coast 
of Ireland annually for the purpose of breeding* the puffin is the 
most select as to locality ; the guillemot* razorbill* and black 
guillemot being frequently found where it is not ; — those three 
species also being usually met with at the same place. The greatest 
haunt of the puffin and rock-nesting birds generally which I have 
visited about midsummer* is the magnificent range of cliffs* miles 
in extent* in the peninsula — “ island ” it is called — of 
The Horn * in Donegal, 
on and about which I spent the week ending the month of June* 
1832.f I shall therefore copy some of my notes on the birds of 
the locality* that an idea may be formed by persons who have 
not visited such haunts* of the species found there. 
By the philosophical student of Nature* however* the mighty 
scene before him* comprising earth* ocean* sky* each in its subli- 
mity* will be considered before he turns his attention to its beautiful 
adjuncts ; — the feathered race. Its physical geography* as his 
* In the 5th chapter of a very interesting series of papers by Hugh Miller, pub- 
lished in the ‘Witness’ newspaper (April 12, 1845), entitled, “A Summer Kamble 
among the fossiliferous deposits of the Hebrides,” it is mentioned that the islanders of 
Eigg believe the old puffins to administer sorrel-leaves to their young for the purpose 
of reducing them in size, and enabling them to get out of the burrows when their 
wings are fit for use. It is believed that the nestlings become so fat, that but for this 
remedy they would be incapable of leaving their birth-places. 
f The map of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge gives “ Horn 
Head 807 ” yards, or 921 feet ; but this probably applies to the highest hill of the 
peninsula. “Cliffs 235 ” yards or 705 feet in height are, however, indicated. In 
the first volume of this work I mentioned Horn Head as attaining nearly 600 feet, 
on the authority of a nautical survey made in 1832 or 1833, in which it was noted 
as 580 feet. 
