Puffin

puffin Fratercula arctica, a seabird of the auk family (Alcidae) which inhabits northerly coastal waters of Europe. Neither its appealing appearance nor its wealth of quaint common names nor the fishy and ‘rank’ taste of its flesh have preserved it from being snared and eaten. It is said that they could be made palatable by pickling them with spices. However, it seems to be only in iceland and the faeroe islands that these birds are eaten to an appreciable extent.