IS another short-winged water bird, but, unlike the Northern Diver, it visits us in the summer, and breeds on our shores. It is about a foot long, and has the back and wings black, the cheeks and all the lower parts of the body, except a band round the neck, white, and the feet orange. Its bill is very curious, and has obtained for it the names of Sea Parrot and Coulterneb in some places. This organ is large and strong, but flattened at the sides; it is of a bluish colour, with three grooves and four ridges of an orange colour. The Puffin flies swiftly, and swims and dives almost as well as the Great Diver; it breeds sometimes in crannies amongst the rocks, and sometimes in a hole which it digs in the turf or in a rabbit-warren. [Illustration: THE GREAT AUK, (_Alca impennis_,)] WHICH is sometimes called the Northern Penguin, is a large bird, furnished with very small wings, which, although formed of regular feathers, like those of other birds, are far too weak to raise their owner into the air. They are, however, of use in another way. When the Auk dives, which it frequently does, they serve as fins, and, with its powerful webbed feet, enable it to swim underneath the water with even greater rapidity than on the surface. This bird was formerly seen occasionally on the northern coasts of Britain, and became more plentiful towards the Arctic seas; but no specimens have now been met with for many years, and there is reason to believe that the bird is quite extinct on our coasts. In the water the Great Auk, like the Diver, is wonderfully active, swimming on the surface or beneath the waves with equal ease. Mr. Bullock, when in the Orkneys, pursued a male bird for several hours in a six-oared boat without being able to kill him. The Great Auk is generally about three feet long, and changes its plumage in summer. The breeding-season is in June and July, when the female lays one large egg, of a yellowish colour, marked with black spots. [Illustration: THE PENGUIN, (_Speniscus demersus_,)] OF which numerous species abound on the shores and islands of the great Southern Ocean, is remarkable for its almost incredible agility in the water; it swims and dives like a fish, and in fact is described as coming to the surface for air, and descending again so suddenly as to give rise to the impression that it is a fish jumping in sport. It is found in vast numbers in hiding places, where the females are seen sitting upright and holding their single egg between their legs. BOOK III. INHABITANTS OF THE WATER. § I. _Cetacea, or Sea Mammalia._ [Illustration: THE COMMON, OR GREENLAND WHALE. (_Balæna mysticetus._)]