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A LOST PUFFIN.
The wild and sudden storms that have fallen upon England make us realize how near our inland places are to the sea. Sea-faring birds of very many sorts have been seen in many unexpected places, especially, of course, gulls, both black- headed and herring gulls. The most surprising example that I know of comes from a little hamlet—very familiar to me- in the little county of Huntingdon. A young puffin has been picked up there in a dying condition. Its age was announced by the absence of the full yellow colour from the beak, which was not yet of the full size. Years ago it used to be the habit of the clergyman in the next parish to Upton to put down in the Church register any abnormal fact of natural history. The most remarkable of these comes under the date of 100 years ago or rather more. It runs, so far as I remember the words, thus : " After the great flood a salmon a yard and an inch long was found stranded in Farmer Newton's meadow." The poor little puffin caught by this irresistible wind and deposited in the little remote hamlet deserves immortalizing in the parish registers no less than the yard- long salmon. Its appearance seemed so strange that it was sent off to a naturalist many miles away for identification.
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