034 A DESCRIPTION OF BIRDS. 
by despair; and that, when released, instead of flying 
away, they will often hurry again into their burrows. 
But Bingley says, " When I was in Wales, in the summer 
of 1801, I took several Puffin Auks out of the holes that 
had young ones in them, for the purpose of ascertaining 
this fact. They bit me with great violence, but none of 
them seized on any parts of their own body : a few, on 
being released, ran into the burrows, but not always into 
those from which I had taken them. If it was more easy 
for them to escape into a hole than raise themselves in to the 
air, they did so ; but if not, they ran down the slope of the 
hill in which their burrows were formed, and flew away. 
The noise they make when with their young is a singular 
kind of humming, much resembling that produced by the 
large wheels used for the spinning of worsted. On being 
seized, they emitted this noise with greater violence : and 
from its being interrupted by their struggling to escape, 
it sounded not much unlike the efforts of a dumb man to 
speak. The young ones are entirely covered with a 
long blackish down, and, in shape, are altogether so 
different from the parent birds, that no one would at first 
sight suppose them of the same species. Their bill also is 
long, pointed, and black, with scarcely any marks of fur- 
