bird. At the further end of the hole the single egg is deposited : in size it nearly equals that of a pullet,
but varies much in form, some being acute at one end, while in others both ends are equally obtuse. Its
colour, when first laid, is white; but it soon becomes soiled from its immediate contact with the earth,
no materials being collected for a nest at the end o f the burrow. The young are hatched after a month’s
incubation, and are then covered with a long blackish down above, which soon gives place to the feathered
plumage; so that at the end of a month or five weeks they are able to quit the burrow and follow their
parents to the open sea. Soon after this time, or about the second week in August, the whole leave our
coasts on their equatorial migration On the water the Puffin is more wary than the Guillemot,
generally taking wing or diving before a boat can approach within gun-shot. It flies rapidly, but not to
any great distance at once, being obliged to employ its short and narrow wings to their utmost power for the
support o f its body, which is heavy in proportion to its dimensions.”
“ By far the most abundant species in St. Kilda,” says Macgiilivray, “ is the Puffin, which breeds in the
crevices o f the rocks as well as in artificial burrows in almost every situation, sometimes at a considerable
distance from the water’s edge. It is taken by the fowlers in two ways,—when on the nest, by introducing
the hand and dragging out the bird, at the risk of a severe bite; and when sitting on the rocks, by a noose
of horsehair attached to a slender rod, generally formed o f bamboo-cane. The latter mode is most successful
in wet weather, as the Puffins then sit best upon the rocks, allowing a person to approach within a few
yards; and as many as three hundred may be taken in the course o f the day by an expert bird-catcher____
The Puffin forms the chief article o f food with the St. Kildians during the summer months, and is usually
cooked by roasting among the ashes.”
It has not been very clearly ascertained how far the Puffin proceeds in a northerly direction, or whether
its range extends beyond the neighbourhood o f the North Cape in Europe or the southern part o f Greenland.
I suspect that a nearly allied species, the Fratercula glacialis, takes it place in those regions; for Mr.
Alfred Newton, during his recent visit to Spitsbergen, found the bird so called, and not the present one, in
that inhospitable country. On the authority o f Professor Baird, I give the northern portion o f America as
one o f the habitats o f our bird. It appears to be the commonest species o f the two in Iceland; and in the
Faeroes it is exceedingly abundant.
The Puffin is subject to precisely the same kind o f seasonal changes in its plumage as those which take place
in the Auks and the Guillemots. The black throat-mark being peculiar to summer, the whole o f the throat
at the opposite season is either white or greyish white; the colour o f the bill, which is clear and vivid in the
spring, becomes more clouded, and the yellow at the angle of the mouth less prominent or dilated. The bill
o f very young birds, while dressed in the first costume o f black down, differs but little from that o f the
young Guillemot; but it soon begins to resemble that o f the adult; it is not, however, until the second year
that it attains the full normal form. For what particular purpose can the strong hooked claws o f this bird
have been given to it ? Is it for clinging to the branches o f seaweed and corallines during its search for
crustaceans and other aquatic creatures at the bottom o f the deep, or to enable the bird to excavate the
hole for the deposit o f its egg ? I think the former is the more likely reason, because the bird does not,
I believe, confine itself to fish, although it is upon that kind o f food that its newly hatched young are mostly
fed. How often have I seen a lengthened row o f silver sprats hanging from the beak o f an old bird, when
flying in a straight line just above the surface o f the water towards the rocks, upon which the young were
patiently waiting! How evenly were they arranged along the bill, from the gap to the tip ! How beautifully
they glittered in the sun !
The Plate represents an adult, and a young bird o f a week old, of the natural size. The distant scenery
is intended to represent one o f the “ rookeries ” o f Guillemots and Bazorbills, which, with Puffins, make
op the general mass. The bird in the air is the Peregrine Falcon.