THE PUFFIN. 
m 
and none of them larger than newly-hatched chickens. Some of 
the old birds, as if to exhibit their happiness, assume towards 
each other loving attitudes, like those of doves when cooing. 
There is a complete line of demarcation between the nesting- 
places of the kittiwake and the herring-gull ( Laras orgentatus), 
those of the latter being above the others, and the nests much 
farther apart ; indeed, the herring-gull, though plentiful, is less 
numerous than the smaller species. From the summit of the 
cliff, where it approximates 500 feet in altitude, many eggs of the 
razorbill are on the bare rock two or three yards below me, 
while the birds themselves keep flying in and out of crevices to- 
wards the summit of the rocks, within which their young are at 
such a distance that they cannot be reached by the hand. Im- 
mense numbers of puffins breed here, and they afford me an excel- 
lent and near opportunity of observing them, as, within a yard 
of the summit, many appear on the flat ledges of rock, while 
others come flying up from the sea and alighting beside them, 
quite regardless of my presence. A few yards down, others are 
seen at the entrance of holes, like rabbit-burrows, though really 
their own perforations. An immense bank of loose sandy earth 
shooting down almost perpendicularly towards the sea, was 
drilled by them so as to resemble a gigantic dove-cot. Every 
bird of the myriads that I see of various species, excepting nest- 
lings, is in full adult plumage.* 
A puffin, shot here yesterday, was bearing to its mate or 
young, six fish, five of which were young Clupece, nearly six 
inches in length, and the other, a sand-eel of large size. Several 
more were remarked to be similarly well laden, and one bird had 
hold of a fish nearly the size of a full-grown herring ; — ornitho- 
* On examining the colour of the irides of the birds shot to-day, just as they were 
killed, I found those of the puffin, razorbill, and common gull {Larus canus ), to be 
greyish-hazel ; of the chough, black ; oyster-catcher, black, surrounded by a bright 
red ring, as well as having the eyelid of that colour ; common tern ( Sterna hirundo ), 
blackish ; rock-dove ( Columba livid), whitish-brown. The irides of a young cuckoo, 
of adult arctic terns and kittiwakes, shot on the 12th of July, 1833, at the Skerries, 
off Portrush, were of a very dark brown colour. 
Q 2 
