COMMON PUFFIN. 



" The Red-throated Loon is one of the few birds which raises its 

 voice in the quiet of the short Arctic night. 



" In spring, with the Cranes, they foretell an approaching storm 

 by the increased repetition and vehemence of their cries." 



Family ALCID^. Auks, Murres, and Puffins. 



Subfamily FRATERCULIN^. Puffins. 



Genus FRATERCULA Brisson. 



FRATERCULA ARCTICA (Linn.). 



8. Common Puffin. (13) 



Adult male: — Entire upper parts, and a collar passing round the fore neck, 

 black ; sides of the head and throat, grayish-white ; lower parts, white ; a horny 

 protuberance on the upper eyelid. In the young the white of the plumage 

 is shaded with dusky, and the curiously shaped bill is less fully developed. 

 Length, 13 inches. 



Hab. — Coasts and islands of the North Atlantic, breeding from the Bay of 

 Fundy northward. South in winter to Long Island and occasionally farther. 



Nest, in a burrow underground, or in a hole among the rocks, one egg, dull 

 white, sometimes veined or spotted with brown. 



The Puffin is essentially a bird of the sea coast, which it seldom 

 leaves except under stress of weather. They breed in immense 

 numbers in Labrador, Newfoundland, and sparingly in the Bay of 

 Fundy. In winter they scatter along the sea coast and are found 

 as far south as Long Island. In the report of The Ottawa Field 

 Naturalists' Club for 1882 and 1883, it is stated that "a young bird 

 of this species was shot on the Ottawa, towards the end of October, 

 1881. It had probably been blown inland by a severe storm which 

 took place some days previous." This is the only Ontario record we 

 have of its occurrence so far from the sea, or so far west, for this 

 species does not occur on the Pacific coast. 



My first observations of this bird were made during my school 

 days, but may be worth recording, for they show the habits of the 

 bird, which is identical with our American species. One of the 

 principal breeding places, which I frequently visited, was Ailsa Craig, 

 on the west coast of Scotland. The Craig is an isolated, circular rock 

 two or three miles off the coast, about as high as it is wide, and 

 inhabited only by a keeper and many different sorts of sea-fowl. 



