466 
ALCADiE. 
NAT A TORES. 
A LOAD A:. 
PUFFIN. 
SEA PARROT—COULTERNEB—TOMMY NODDY. 
Fratercula ARCTICA. 
PLATE CXXVII. FIG. II. 
This very singular bird breeds on many parts of our 
coast, and in various situations. A few of them resort 
annually to one of the Fern Islands on the Northum¬ 
berland coast, where they lay their eggs in an old rabbit- 
warren, now thickly overgrown with long grass, and, 
Mr. Selby says, frequently excavate fresh burrows for 
themselves. In the Shetland Islands, where they breed 
in immense numbers, they have in some places taken 
up their abode high above the ocean, in clefts and cre¬ 
vices of the rock, or in horizontal holes in the softer 
strata, formed, no doubt, by themselves, for which their 
curious and powerful bills seem fully adequate. In an¬ 
other place they occupy a grassy slope, which occurs mid¬ 
way in the precipice, and rear their young ones under 
the large stones and fragments of the falling cliff with 
which it is strewed. 
Whilst in Norway, we visited an island which was 
tenanted by such countless multitudes of this species, 
that we could distinctly see them on the wing like a 
dark cloud upon the horizon, when at a mile distance 
from them. When we reached the spot, it was to enjoy 
one of the most interesting sights I ever witnessed. The 
island, which sloped gradually upward from the edge of 
