THE MUSEUM. 



13 



T^ird, are like their other habits, to me 

 •at least so similar to those of the Fool- 

 ish Guillemot, that I must leave the 

 ■discriminating between them more 

 •closely for others. 



Common Puffin — Pakrakeet. 

 Fra tec II la a rtica . 

 However similar in habits the Razor- 



billed Auk and Foolish Guillemot may 

 be, it is different with the Puffin, an- 

 other of Labrador's characteristic birds, 

 which has habits peculiar to itself. 

 We found the Puffin occasionally only 

 as we approached the Labrador coast, 

 and occasionally only until we reached 

 its vast breeding grounds the Parrakeet 

 aijd Greenley Islands, just within the 

 mouth of the straights of Belle Isle. 



Greenly Island; the home 



Here they congregated in tens of thous- 

 ands nor was hardly a single bird seen 

 until we were within half a mile of the 

 islands, then they arose of one accord, 

 and as if with a common impulse, be- 

 gan circling around their abode and 

 nesting place. If there were one hun- 

 dred birds, there were as many thous- 

 and. They flew above, about and 

 around us; they lined the waters, they 

 sat like sentinels upon the shore and 

 rocks, hke flies upon a plate of molasses, 

 or hornets upon a sugar barrel. The}- 

 seemed utterly bewildered by our pres- 

 ence, and so tame that we could al- 

 most catch them or pick them up in 

 our hand. They had tunneled the 

 _ground with their holes in every direc- 

 tion, and hundreds peered cautiousl}- 

 from their burrows or flew from them 



of the Auks and Puffins. 



to join the dense black ring that wound 

 around and around the island. 



Their burrows extended far into the 

 loom}- earth of which the island was 

 composed, notwithstanding the imped- 

 iments in the shape of rocks every- 

 where, above and below the ground. 

 I doubt if man or animal could have 

 picked its way across this island with- 

 out stepping upon or l)reaking the 

 earth's crust into one of these holes. 

 They are made by the bird itself, aided 

 by its strong bill and sharp and power- 

 ful claws. They are about the size of 

 the body of the bird or a little larger and 

 generally from two to three feet deep. 

 They wind and bend and often inter- 

 mingle, much as in the case of the 

 well-known Bank Swallow. At the ex- 

 tremity is a very little dried grass and 



