Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/258

234 is known concerning the natural history of this bird, Dr. Bureau proceeds as follows:—

"My ornithological excursions made me acquainted with two islands in Briltany, one the lie de la Manche, and the other the He de l'Ocean, which are still privileged to give refuge during the nesting season to hundreds of Puffins.

"These two numerous colonies, the outposts of those which people the Northern Seas, furnished me with the materials for my study.

"In the spring the Puffins assemble on these islands to devote themselves to the task of reproduction ; they are then all in the same plumage and wear the same adornments (ornements). The cheeks are of a greyish white ; the beak elevated, and thick on a level with the nostrils ; a pleat (ourlet) at the base of the upper mandible; the lower mandible curved regularly; the eyelids vermilion, adorned with two horny plates (plaques); a large rosette (rosace) of a bright yellow at the gape.

"By the middle of July the young are fledged, and towards the end of that month or the beginning of August the Puffins are out at sea. After that date not a single bird is to be seen on these rocks, which up to that time were so full of life.

"The rough weather sets in, the Puffins leave the shore and disperse over the sea, and then supervenes a blank in their history, which is only filled up by rare captures. But soon the winds of winter begin to blow with violence, and after some days of those fearful gales which every year visit our coasts, the waves bring ashore hundreds of dead or dying Puffins. The victims are chiefly young birds, but the adults share the same fate if the storm arises at moulting time, when the simultaneous shedding of the quill-leathers reduces the wings to mere stumps. Three times in the winter ot 1873, alter storms (January 24th, February 6th and March 4th), M. Marmoltan, at Cape Ferret, Arcachon, came across thousands of Puffins, dead, and rolled in the sand by the waves.*

"The Puffins thus cast ashore on the French coast in winter are perfect skeletons, and clad in a plumage different to that worn by the individuals we gel in the breeding season. In the orbital region, for instance, they have a spot more or less large, of a dusky

The same observation has been made by Willughby, in his 'Ornithology.'