abundantly on the coast of Greenland up to 70° N. lat.
Southwards our form breeds on tlie Atlantic coast of America
down to tlie Bay of Fundy, migrating in winter as far as
Massachusetts. Returning to Europe : we find tlie Puffin
breeding on many of tlie small islands in the Channel group,
and on the coast of France, especially off Brittany. I im
observing large numbers in tlie vicinity of the rocky Ber-
lengas Islands, near tlie mouth of the Tagus, on the 8th of
June, 1868, the Editor suspected that they bred there, and
this has since been proved to be the case. In the Mediterranean,
as far east as Sicily, the Puffin is not uncommon in
winter ; and as it has been obtained as late as the 27th of
May, it is possible some may breed on the smaller islands of
that sea. In the North Pacific this species is replaced by
Fratercula corniculata, which has a horny growth on the
upper eyelid, and the black band of the throat extends to the
base of the bill.
In the Puffin, in summer, the basal ridge of the beak is
yellow, the space in advance of the base bluish-grey, with
three grooves and four ridges of orange ; the naked skin at
the gape yellow ; the irides grey, eyelids orange ; lore, chin,
cheeks, and ear-coverts white; forehead, crown, occiput, a
collar round the neck, all the back, wings, and tail, black,
the wing-primaries rather the lightest in colour; all the
under surface of the body white ; legs, toes, and their membranes
orange. The female has a somewhat smaller bill than
the male. In size there is considerable variation between
specimens from the south and those from the far north.
The average length of those from Great Britain is twelve
inches, and of the wing six inches; but in Spitsbergen
examples the wing is sometimes seven inches in length, the
bill being of proportionately large dimensions, and there
appear to be gradations between the two extremes.
The young bird differs from the adult in having the bill
smaller and not so high, the sides of the head are deeper
grey, and the space in front of the eye is sooty-black. In
some cases the dark face is still retained when the bird
begins to breed in its third year.
ERRATUM.—Vol. IV. page 95, line 2 :
for “ the old birds had much smaller bills in summer than
in winter,”
read “ the old birds had much larger bills in summer than
in winter.”
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