COMMON OR ARCTIC PUFFIN. 
123 
and is of a very slender form, with a beautiful silvery hue, existed in vast 
shoals in the deep water around the island. The speed with which the 
birds flew made the fish incline by the side of their neck. While flying the 
•Puffins emitted a loud croaking noise, but they never dropped the fish, and 
many of them, when brought down by a shot, still held their prey fast. I 
observed with concern the extraordinary affection manifested by these birds 
towards each other ; for whenever one fell dead or wounded on the water, 
its mate or a stranger immediately alighted by its side, swam around 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. Those which fell wounded 
immediately ran with speed to some hole, and dived into it, on which no 
further effort was made to secure them. Those which happened to be 
caught alive in the hand bit most severely, and scratched with their claws 
at such a rate that we were glad to let them escape. The burrows here 
communicated in various ways with each other, so that the whole island 
was perforated as if by a multitude of subterranean labyrinths, over which 
one could not run without the risk of falling at almost every step. The 
voices of the young sounded beneath our feet like voices from the grave, 
and the stench was 'extremely disagreeable, so that as soon as our boats 
were filled with birds we were glad to get away. 
During the whole of our visit, the birds never left the place, but con- 
stantly attended to their avocations- Here one would rise from beneath our 
feet, there, within a few yards of us, another would alight with a fish, and 
dive into its burrow, or feed the young that stood waiting at the entrance. 
The young birds were far from being friendly towards each other, and those 
which we carried with us kept continually fighting so long as we kept them 
alive. They used their yet extremely small and slender bills with great 
courage and pertinacity, and their cries resembled the wailings of young 
whelps. The smaller individuals were fed by the parents by regurgitation, 
or received little pieces of fish which were placed in their mouths ; the 
larger picked up the fish that were dropped before them ; but almost all of 
them seemed to crawl to the entrance of the holes for the purpose of being 
fed. In all the burrows that communicated with others, a round place was 
scooped out on one side of the avenue, in the form of an oven ; while in 
those which were single, this oven-like place was found at the end, and was 
larger than the corridor. All the passages were flattish above, and rounded 
beneath, as well as on the sides. In many instances we found two birds 
sitting each on its egg in the same hole. 
The Puffin never lays more than one egg, unless the first may have been 
destroyed or taken away ; nor does it raise more than a single young one in 
