COMMON OR ARCTIC PUFFIN. 
125 
large stones, I observed that the Puffins often flew from one crag or stone 
to another, alighting with ease, and then standing erect. 
The young, while yet covered with down, are black, with a white patch 
on the belly. Their bills do not acquire much of the form which they 
ultimately have for several weeks ; nor do they assume their perfect shape 
for years. I have examined many hundred individuals, among which I 
have foupd great differences in the size and form of the bill. In fact, the 
existence of this diversity has induced many persons to think that we have 
several species of Puffin on our coasts ; but, after having examined many 
specimens in Europe, I am decidedly of opinion that this species is the same 
that occurs in both continents, and that we have only one more at all 
common on our eastern coasts. The sexes differ in no perceptible degree, 
only that the males are somewhat larger. When two years old they may 
be considered of their full size, although the bill continues to grow and 
acquires furrows, until it becomes as you see it in the plate. 
Mormon arcticus, Bonap. Syn., p. 430. 
Puffin or Coulterneb, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 542. 
Puffin, Mormon arcticus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 105. 
Male 111, 23. 
Ranges southward along the coast in winter, at times as far as Georgia. 
Less rare from Long Island eastward, and becomes plentiful in the Bay of 
Fundy. Breeds in vast numbers in burrows, on the islands off Labrador. 
Adult Male in summer. 
Bill about the length of the head, nearly as high as long, exceedingly 
compressed, at the base as high as the head, obliquely furrowed on the sides. 
Upper mandible with a horny rim along the basal margin, its dorsal line 
curved from the base, the ridge very narrow but rounded, the sides rapidly 
sloped, and marked with three curved oblique grooves, the edges obtuse, 
their outline nearly straight, the tip deflected, very narrow but obtuse. 
Between the basal rim and the first groove is a triangular flat space analogous 
to the nasal groove, in the lower part of which, close to the edge of the bill, 
is the linear direct nostril. Lower mandible with the angle very narrow, 
and so placed that the base of the bill is inflected beyond the perpendicular, 
the dorsal line a’ little convex at first, towards the end straight, the ridge 
narrow, broader about the middle, the sides nearly flat, grooved and ridged 
as in the upper, the edges strong, the tip very narrow. The gap extends 
downwards a little beyond the base of the bill, and is furnished with a soft 
corrugated extensible membrane. 
Head large, oblong, anteriorly compressed. Eye rather small, with bare 
