LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 83 



on which they have been living. As soon as the puffins are sufficiently 

 abundant about the islands where they breed the natives organize 

 merry hunting parties to capture them. On certain days they fre- 

 quent their breeding groimds in immense numbers, flying back and 

 forth in straight lines, crossing and recrossing the small grassed- 

 topped island, just high enough to clear it. The birds are swift 

 fliers and seem unable to change their course quicldy. The Aleuts 

 take advantage of this peculiarity and catch them in large, long- 

 handled nets, which are suddenly raised in front of the birds and 

 which they can not dodge. It is a simple process when the birds are 

 flying thickly, and large numbers are taken in this way. The birds 

 are killed by biting the head or breaking the back. Besides furnish- 

 ing a welcome supply of fresh meat, the birds are skinned and the 

 skins are cured and used for clothing. A parka made of puffin skins 

 is not only a very warm but a very light and serviceable garment. 

 About 45 skins are required to make one parka, which is niade like 

 a shirt with a hood and is worn with the feathers on the inside. 



Nesting. — ^Among the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands we found the 

 tufted puffin breeding in a variety of situations. On June 15, 1911, 

 we visited a small rocky island in Nazan Bay, Atka Island, on the 

 rounded top of which enough soil had accumulated to support a rank 

 growth of heavily tufted grass. As we drew near we could see a few 

 quaint white faces, with flowing plumes, peering out from the crev- 

 ices in the rocks, and many more of them half hidden in the long 

 grass. The comical solemnity of this species and the long snowy 

 locks, slightly tinged with yellow, have suggested the appropriate 

 name by which it is called the " old man of the sea." Long before 

 we landed the puffins had all left the island, flying out to meet us, 

 circling about us several times until their curiosity was satisfied and 

 finally settling down on the water to watch proceedings from a safe 

 distance. The crevices in the rocks were inaccessible, but there were 

 plenty of burrows in the soil among the grass. We dug out several 

 burrows, but found no eggs and concluded that most of the birds had 

 not laid. 



On Bogoslof Island, on July 4, 1911, we found a few pairs of 

 tufted puffins breeding in burrows in the sandy bluffs above the 

 beaches and in the sandy and stony slopes abom. Castle Rocks, among 

 the great murre colonies. Their burrows were rather shallow, and 

 in one I could plainly see the Qgg without opening the burrow ; they 

 were generally profusely lined with feathers and straws. Some of 

 the material must have been stolen from the neighboring gulls' nests 

 or brought from a long distance ; for there was no vegetation on the 

 island. 



On Walrus Island, on July 7, 1911, we found numerous pairs nest- 

 ing under the loose rocks in the center of the island among the 



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