PELECANINiE. 
219 
Puffins are not observed on our coasts in winter, for, al- 
though they breed much farther north than Britain, they pro- 
ceed in autumn farther toward the equator. In the end of 
spring they make their appearance about the islands and head- 
lands on which they breed, on various parts of the coast of 
England and Scotland, as the Pern Islands, Puffin Island in 
the Prith of Forth, Priestholm in Anglesey, the Isle of Mann, 
Berneray of Barray, and St Kilda. They dig holes in the 
earth, from two to three feet in length, in which a single egg 
is deposited. It is white, oval, two inches and a half long, 
an inch and ten-twelfths in breadth, the young remain in the 
burrows until well grown, and all the individuals disperse by 
the middle of August. Although rank, the flesh of this bird 
is often eaten. The Puffins fly with rapidity, and are very 
active upon and in the water, being more lively than even 
the Auks and Guillemots, which, however, they resemble in 
their habits. 
Coulterneb. Bottle-nose. Tammie-norrie, Tommy-noddy, 
Tommy. Cockandy. Pope. Sea Parrot. 
Alca^arctica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 211. — Alcaarctica, Lath. 
Ind. Ornith. ii. 792. — Mormon Fratercula, Temin. Man. 
d’Ornith. ii. 933. — Mormon arcticus, Arctic Puffin, MacGil- 
livray, Brit. Birds, v. 
We come now to a family in many respects among the 
most remarkable of the Palmipede series, and to which it is 
impossible to assign a definite station among either the Divers 
or Plungers, some of them being in habits swimming and div- 
ing birds, and others plunging-birds, incapable of diving 
without ascending in the air, and falling headlong on their 
prey. Their whole organization, however, indicates a much 
greater affinity to the Urinatrices than to the Mersatrices ; 
and for this reason they may be considered as forming a 
transitional or aberrant family of that order. 
FAMILY XLVII. PELECANINJE. PELECA- 
NINE BIRDS, OR PELICANS, CORMORANTS, 
AND GANNETS. 
The Pelecaninse are with us represented only by two 
species of Cormorant, and a Gannet, two genera which 
