86 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



Plumages. The young when first hatched is completely covered 

 with long, soft, silky down, sooty black above and sooty grayish be- 

 low. It remains in the nest until it is at least partly fledged; in the 

 juvenal plumage the feathers of the belly are largely white, but or- 

 dinarily these white feathers are soon replaced by those of the first 

 winter plumage. In this plumage the upper parts are blackish and 

 the under parts dark brown, but the feathers of the belly are whitish 

 basally; young birds during the first winter can be readily distin- 

 guished from adults by their smaller, weaker bills without the 

 grooves, by their brown irides and by the entire absence of the crests 

 or ear tufts. At the first prenuptial molt, which is only partial, the 

 face becomes partially white, the first ear tufts, which are dull yel- 

 lowish brown in color, are acquired, the irides become white and the 

 bill is partially developed. At the first postnuptial molt, during the 

 following August and September, the adult winter plumage is as- 

 sumed by a complete molt. 



Adults have an incomplete prenuptial molt, involving at least the 

 head and neck and perhaps much of the contour plumage, and a 

 complete postnuptial molt. At this latter molt the white face and 

 the long, flowing plumes of the nuptial plumage disappear, the 

 cuirass or horny covering at the base of the bill is shed and the white 

 irides become pale blue. In the winter plumage the face is wholly 

 dark brown and the ear tufts or plumes are either entirely lacking 

 or replaced by rudimentary dull yellowish plumes. Winter adults 

 often have many white or gray-tipped feathers on the under parts. 



Food. The food of the tufted puffin consists mainly of fish, such 

 as smelts (sometimes 8 or 10 inches long), sardines, herring, and 

 perch, which it catches by diving and swimming swiftly under water 

 and which it carries crosswise in its bill. It also feeds largely on 

 various mollusks, sea urchins, and other sea food, including algae. 

 Its powerful beak is well designed for crushing the shells of mol- 

 lusks and sea urchins. Most of its food is obtained at sea, for which 

 it often travels many miles. 



According to Prof. Harold Heath (1915) these puffins which are 

 very abundant about Forrester Island, Alaska, make themselves a 

 nuisance to the fishermen in that region; he writes: 



For fearlessness, pluck, and dash the tufted puffins have no equal on the 

 island, and the maledictions and gaff hooks hurled at them during the fishing 

 season were probably as numerous as the birds themselves. While their natural 

 food consists almost wholly of sand launces, they are by no means averse to 

 cleaning the bait from the fishermen's hooks. For hours at a time they will 

 follow a rowboat, and rarely indeed is a fisherman able to sink a line below 

 their diving depth, or slip it into the water without detection. Fortunately 

 not all of the puffins are engaged in this thrifty method of gathering food, and 

 the boatman is usually able to cross some other fisherman's path and switch the 

 pest on to his trail. 



