Harvesting Seabirds and their Eggs on the Irish Sea Islands (Part 3: The Calf of Man)

Abstract

The Calf once hosted substantial colonies of puffins, and more particularly shearwaters. Evidence for the one-time exploitation of 'true puffins' is as scarce and fragmentary as for gulls, guillemots, and razorbills (see Part 2, Folk Life, 48.2 (2010)), but commercial exploitation of 'Manx puffins' is better recorded. No detailed early accounts of 'puffin'-harvesting appear to survive (tools, techniques, terminology, and social organization, or preparing/processing for food/export). However, payment slips and ledgers provide sufficient clues to reconstruct a not-insignificant understanding of practices. Part 3 (below) reviews brief and episodic travellers' references and earlier researchers' notes on the exploitation of Calf 'puffins', and discusses material found mainly in early eighteenth-century Cattle Books and Vouchers of Castle Rushen Disbursements. In particular it focuses on: the reliability of the evidence; difficulties in reconciling numbers of birds taken/sold in different kinds of document; the association of the Stevenson family with the Calf and its 'puffins'; inter-relationships between bird behaviour and harvesting strategies; uses for the birds and their feathers; tithes; 'puffin'-hunting teams and 'puffin'-purchasers; the multiple role of the Keeper of the Calf; parallels/links between hunting 'puffins', sheep, and rabbits. 'Puffin'-hunting was but one element in a Manx economy drawing upon multiple resources. Many factors influenced the balance between these resources and the availability/survival of the birds themselves. These are discussed more fully in Part 4 (forthcoming, Folk Life50.1).