THE TUFTED PUFFIN. 



903 



dull oil-green or delicate horn-color, and these in turn exactlv match the irides 

 in tint. The feet also become bright \"erniilion instead of a pale salmon. 



Thus gaily caparisoned, the Tufted Puttins. "Sea Parrots" ni:)\v, repair 



to 



the grass^^ 



sloping hillsides of the r(:)ck}- islets which comprise the 

 Olympiades. and reno\'ate the old nesting burrows, or else dig new ones. 

 They work intermittently at this. Stejneger, cin the Commander Islands, 

 noted that in the earl_\- days of the season the Puffins spent onlv one day 

 ashore in alternation with two days at sea. It is probable, therefore, that 

 the birds engage in the evolutions of courtship during these "sea-davs," 

 for I have never seen anything but the most decorous behavior ashore. 



Il is not 

 easily possi- 

 ble to exag- 

 gerate the 

 grave solem- 

 nit}' of these 

 quaint fowls. 

 Thev are ab- 

 snlutely si- 

 lent on all 

 o c c a s i o n s 

 sa\-e w h e n 

 caught and 

 h a r a s s e d , 

 w h e n they 

 nia_\' emit a 

 low, raucous 

 groan. They 

 spend much 

 time stand- 

 ing demureh- 

 at the en- 

 trances of their burrows, and the nearest approach to levit}- one ever sees 

 is the accidental sliaking of the pendent plumes when the bird turns its 

 head. 



If a hillside colony is approached suddenly from shore, the standing 

 population, presumably males, pitches downward to sea by a common impulse; 

 while the nest occupants come shelling out b_\' twos and threes and dozens as 

 one tra\-erses the h(^ney-combed earth. Once a-wing, the Puffin returns again 

 and again to satisfy his curiosity, empldying for the purpose great horizc^ntal 

 circles or ellipses, and slowing up a little at perigee. Or, if the nesting island 

 be a small nne. the Puffins will circle it a score of times, forming rln-thmicallv 



Rcdrimn by Allan Brooks from Photo by tlie Author. 

 •RETURNS .\G.\IX .WD .\r,.\IX TO S.\TISFY HIS CURIOSITY." 



