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ALCIM. 
cover the ground, so that when on the arrival of a boat they all 
come out of their holes, the green surface of the island appears 
like a meadow thickly enamelled with daisies. The soil is so per- 
forated by their burrows, that it is scarcely possible to take a 
step on solid ground.”* 
Pennant remarks, with reference to Priestholm Island, off the 
coast of Anglesea : — ■“ The first young are hatched the beginning 
of July, the old ones show vast affection towards them, and seem 
totally insensible of danger in the breeding season. If a parent 
is taken at that time, and suspended by the wings, it will, in a 
sort of despair, treat itself most cruelly, by biting every part it 
can reach ; and the moment it is loosed, will never offer to escape, 
but instantly resort to its unfledged young : but this affection 
ceases at the stated time of migration, which is most punctually 
about the 11th of August, when they leave such young as cannot 
fly, to the mercy of the peregrine falcon, who watches the mouths 
of the holes for the appearance of the little deserted puffins, which, 
forced by hunger, are compelled to leave their burrows.” This 
passage is commented on by Mr. Blackwall, in connection with 
the desertion of their young by the Hirundines . t The causes, as 
they appear to me, which lead to such desertion, have been as- 
signed in the first volume (p. 382) of the present work, and are 
equally applicable to the puffin. Audubon remarks on the adults 
that he “ observed with concern the extraordinary affection 
manifested by these birds to each other ; for whenever one fell 
dead or wounded on the water, its mate, or a stranger, imme- 
diately alighted by its side, swam round it, pushed it with its bill 
as if to urge it to fly or dive, and seldom would leave it until an 
oar was raised to knock it on the head, when at last, aware of the 
danger, it would plunge below in an instant.”— f Orn. Biogd 
vol. iii. p. 107. This author gives the fullest and most interest- 
ing account of the puffin I have read. His opportunities of ob- 
serving it, especially at Perroket island— (doubtless so called from 
* ‘Western Isles of Scotland/ vol. i. p. 198. 
t ‘ Researches in Zoology/ p. 121. 
