THE AUKS 273 



paired, but there is little clear evidence of this. We do not know how 

 early or where mate-recognition takes place, or how far the paired 

 birds keep together after the breeding-season. It is only when a pair 

 is completely isolated from the main colony, especially in the case of 

 the more solitary black guillemot, that we can be sure that the mated 

 pair associate regularly on the water near their home. There is strong 

 circumstantial evidence that, in the larger colonies of common and 

 black guillemots, razorbills and puffins, there is intermingling and some 

 promiscuity between individuals on the water under the breeding- 

 cliffs. Winn (1950) found the male black guillemot directed his atten- 

 tion to several females at first, but later concentrated on his mate. 

 Similar behaviour may sometimes be seen in the puffin: the male 

 has been seen guarding a female (presumed — from the smaller size 

 of the head) from the attentions of other males, by swimming between 

 her and other males, which he attacked "when the intruder was two 

 or three body-lengths away from the female, and it seemed that as far 

 as the male was concerned this area was part of the female and could 

 be violated as if the intruder was actually touching her. The female 

 was never seen to initiate attacks" (Conder, 1949). Male puffins have 

 been watched by us pursuing one female after another, and the same 

 male has been seen to "guard" a female for a short time before swimming 

 after another female which finally allowed coition; it is not proved 

 therefore that each pair seen together on the water in a large raft are 

 necessarily mated and sharing the same burrow on land. However there 

 is also definite mate-recognition on the water (Lockley, 1934), since 

 occasionally a pair will rise in the air together out of the raft and fly 

 to a single burrow in the cliffs. At the terrestrial nesting site mated 

 puffins are faithful to each other, as we shall prove later in this chapter. 

 We may compare this pre-egg-laying promiscuity with that of the 

 cormorant, where it is the female which seeks occasional extra-marital 

 coition; and with that of the Buller's mollymawk, where males adult- 

 erously attack and forcibly copulate with the females of mated 

 pairs. 



Although we have not been able to prove that mature auks, on 

 arrival off the coast of the breeding cliffs, are already paired, it must 

 be the case that a large proportion of the experienced breeders return 

 to the same crevice or burrow or niche in the rocks where they nested 

 a year ago, and there discover their mate, also of the previous year. 

 A mated pair oi auks can be watched flying close together, sometimes 

 as far as the eye can follow them, from the moment they leave the edge 



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