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money cheaper, only 50 puffins are said (op. cit. p. 196) to have been ' There cannot be much doubt that the name puffin given to these young birds, salted and dried, was applied on See also:

account of their downy clothing, for an English informant of See also:

Gesner's de-scribed one to him (Hist. avium, p. 11o) as wanting true feathers, and being covered only with a sort of woolly See also:

black plumage. It is right, however, to See also:

state that See also:

Caius expressly declares (Rarior. See also:

animal. libellus, fol. 21) that the name is derived " a naturali voce pupin." See also:

SKEAT, WALTER WILLIAM (1835– )

Skeat states that the word is a diminutive, which favours the view that it was originally used as a name for these young birds. The parents were probably known by one or other of their many local appellations.demanded. It is stated by both Gesner and Caius that they were allowed to be eaten in See also:

LENT (0. Eng. lenclen, " spring," M. Eng. lenten, lente, lent; cf. Dut. lente, Ger. Lenz, " spring," 0. H. Ger. lenzin, lengizin, lenzo, probably from the same root as " long " and referring to " the lengthening days ")

Lent.

Ligon, who in 1673 published a See also:

HISTORY

History of the See also:

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

Island of Barbadoes, speaks (p. 37) of the See also:

ill taste of puffins " which we have from the isles of Scilly," and adds " this See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind of See also:

food is only for servants." Puffins used to resort in vast See also:

numbers to certain stations on the See also:

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

coast, and are still plentiful on some, reaching them in See also:

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

spring with remarkable punctuality on a certain See also:

day, which naturally varies with the locality, and after passing the summer there leaving their homes with similar precision. They differ from most other Alcidae in laying their single See also:

egg (which is See also:

white with a few See also:

grey markings when first produced, but speedily begrimed by the See also:

SOIL

soil) in a shallow burrow, which they either dig for themselves or appropriate from a See also:

RABBIT

rabbit, for on most of their haunts rabbits have been introduced. Their plumage is of a glossy black above—the cheeks grey, encircled by a black See also:

BAND

band—and pure white beneath; their feet are of a See also:

bright reddish See also:

orange, but the most remark-able feature of these birds, and one that gives them a very comical expression, is their huge See also:

BILL

bill. This is very deep and laterally flattened, so as indeed to resemble a coulter, as one of the bird's common names expresses; but moreover it is parti-coloured —See also:

BLUE (common in different forms to most European languages)

blue, yellow and red—curiously grooved and still more curiously embossed in places, that is to say during the breeding-See also:

SEASON (0. Fr. seson, seison, mod. saison, Lat. satio, sowing time, the spring, from serere, to sow; in Late Lat. the word is found with its present meaning, the spring being considered as particularly the season of the year)

season, when the birds are most frequently seen. But it had See also:

long been known to some observers that such puffins as occasionally occur in See also:

winter (most often washed up on the See also:

SHORE

shore and dead) presented a See also:

BEAK (early forms beke and becke, from Fr. bec, late Lat. beccus, supposed to be a Gaulish word; the Celtic bec and beq, however, are taken from the English)

beak very different in shape and See also:

SIZE

size, and to account for the difference was a See also:

STANDING

standing See also:

PUZZLE

puzzle. Many years ago See also:

BINGLEY

Bingley (See also:

North See also:

WALES (Cymru, Gwalia, Cambria)

Wales, i. 354) stated that puffins " are said to See also:

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

change their bills annually. The remark seems to have been generally overlooked; but it has proved to be very near the truth, for after investigations carefully pursued during some years by Dr See also:

BUREAU (a Fr. word from burel or bureau, a coarse cloth used for coverings)

Bureau of See also:

Nantes he was in 1877 enabled to show (See also:

Bull. See also:

Soc. Zool. See also:

France, ii.

377–399)2 that the puffin's bill undergoes what may be called an annual See also:

MOULT

moult, some of its most remarkable appendages, as well as certain horny out-growths above and beneath the eyes, dropping off at the end of the breeding season, and being reproduced the following See also:

YEAR

year. Not long after the same naturalist announced (op. cit.) iv. 1–68) that he had followed the similar changes which. he found to take See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place, not only in other species of puffins, as the Fratercula corniculata and F. cirrhata of the See also:

NORTHERN

Northern Pacific, but in several birds of the kindred genera Ceratorhina and Simorhynachus inhabiting the same See also:

WATERS, TERRITORIAL

waters. The name puffin has also been given in books to one of the shearwaters which belong to the sub-family Procellariina of the Petrels (q.v.), and its latinized See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form Puffinus is still used in that sense in scientific nomenclature. This fact seems to have arisen from a See also:

MISTAKE (i.e. take amiss)

mistake of See also:

Ray's who, seeing in Tradescant's Museum and that of the Royal Society some young shearwaters from the Isle of See also:

Man, prepared in like manner to young puffins, thought they were the birds mentioned by Gesner as the remarks inserted in See also:

WILLUGHBY, FRANCIS (1635—1672)

Willughby's Ornithologia (p. 251) prove; for the specimens de-scribed by Ray were as clearly shearwaters as Gesner's were puffins.

End of Article: PUFFIN

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