ALCIDAE—PUFFIN,
279
Mr. Philip Marriage, of Broomfield Mills, Chelmsford, who shot it there about
ten or fifteen years ago, during an extensive flood. One was caught alive on
the deck of one of the Great Eastern Railway Company's steamers while lying
alongside the pier at Dovercourt on Dec, 3rd, 1878 (Kerry—40. iii. 182). About
the middle of Dec, 1879, during severe weather, one was obtained by a gentleman
on the marshes at Dedham (Chelmsford Chronicle, Dec. 19), and another was shot on
the River Roach on Nov. 27th, 1883, by Mr. Chas. Wiseman, of Paglesham {Chelms-
ford Chronicle, Dec. 1). An Essex specimen is among the birds collected by the
late Col. Russell. The Rev. J. C. Atkinson writes me, " I have seen the Little
Auk at sea, when shooting under sail. We had one astern of us one day within
six or eight yards for many minutes." Mr. Hope has one, picked up alive in a
starving and exhausted condition on the main, in Jan., 1880, after a heavy gale
with snow. One, which was not preserved, was killed off the Maplin Sands in
Oct., 1883 (Baxter). Mr. Stacey, of Dunmow, preserved one caught alive at that
place on Nov. 20th, 1884. During a severe N.E. gale on Nov. 9th, 1873, one was
taken alive among the pigeons on a farm near Walton (29. Nov. 15).
Puffin : Fratercula arctica.
To be met with on the seas round our coast during autumn, win
ter and spring, but not common.
Mr. Hope describes it as com-
mon in winter in Essex. At
Harwich, Mr. Kerry says some
are seen every year. Mr. J. F.
T. Wiseman informs me that he
met with it when Wild-fowl-
shooting on the Tillingham
Main in the winter of 1853-54.
Dr. Bree (32a) mentions young
specimens shot at Mersea in
Dec, 1874, and on the Stour in
Nov., 1869. One was shot on
the Thames between Erith and Gravesend on June 12th, 1885 (R. Fortune—40
ix. 263). Both the time and place of capture are remarkable, but on the same
page Lord Lilford records the capture of a Puffin in one of the bedroom; of Sir
John Walrond's house in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, on May 16th.