Machias Seal Islands 



241 



ing about an acre. Here was located the colony of breeding Puffins, estimated 

 by the light-keeper to number some three hundred birds, and at once hither I 

 directed my steps, followed overhead by a cloud of complaining Arctic Terns, 

 whose nests, with eggs, were among the rocks and by the edges of the grass. 

 Some fifty or sixty of the Puffins were sitting on the tops of the higher boul- 

 ders, continually shifting positions as some came in from the sea and others 

 went down to fish. At my near approach, they flew in scattered flocks to a dis- 

 tance of some few hundred feet off-shore, where flocks were continually sitting 

 during my two days' stay on the islands. To observe them more closely, I 

 placed my umbrella blind between two big boulders in the center of their 



PUFFIN. NOTE THAT THE BIRD, UNLIKE MURRES AND AUKS, 

 STANDS ONLY ON ITS TOES 



resting-places, and, retiring, spent an hour or so in arranging the tent on the 

 other side of the island, in preparation for the night. 



On returning to my blind among the ledges, I was pleased to find the Puffins 

 well accustomed to it, even to alighting within twenty or thirty feet, which 

 distance was halved and quartered in another hour's waiting motionless inside. 

 First alighting for a moment, as they came in twos or threes in a great circle 

 from just off the breaking surf, they soon were resting almost motionless on the 

 tops of the rocks, and at times within a few feet of my reach, to the number of 

 twenty or thirty or more at a time. The wind shaking the cloth of the shelter 

 was at first startling; but, after a few hurried departures of the whole alighted 

 flock at once, they settled themselves to the new conditions, peering sharply 

 now and then at an extra-hard shake, or starting a moment at the click of the 



