ATLANTIC PUFFIN 89 



Prater cula arctica arctica (Linnaeus) 

 ATLANTIC PUFFIN 



HABITS 



Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend 



The puffin is a curious mixture of the solemn and the comical. Its 

 short stocky form and abbreviated neck, ornamented with a black 

 collar, its serious owl-like face and extraordinarily large and bril- 

 liantly colored bill, suggestive of the false nose of a masquerader, 

 its vivid orange red feet and legs all combine to produce such a gro- 

 tesque effect that one is brought almost to laughter on seeing these 

 birds walking about near at hand. The parrotlike appearance of 

 the bill has earned the name of "parroquet," or "sea parrot," by 

 which it is known in Labrador and Newfoundland. Besides being 

 grotesque it is singularly confiding or stupid, and it is this, it seems 

 to me, that is leading rapidly but surely to its downfall and final 

 extinction, unless refuges are created and respected where it can 

 breed undisturbed. At the present time the most southerly breeding 

 station is Matinicus Rock off the middle coast of Maine. Here only 

 two pairs are left. The only other breeding place left on the coast 

 of the United States is at Machias Seal Island. Here in 1904, ac- 

 cording to Butcher (1904), there was a colony of 300 of these birds. 

 It is probable that the coast of Maine was formerly the resort of 

 large numbers of this species. According to Knight (1908) a few 

 pairs probably bred on Seal Island not far from Matinicus as re- 

 cently as 1888. Audubon (1840), who visited the Bay of Fundy in 

 1833, says it bred commonly on the islands in the bay "although not 

 one perhaps now for a hundred that bred there 20 years ago." Now, 

 they are nearly if not entirely extirpated. Macoun (1909) gives 

 only one breeding locality for Nova Scotia, namely, Seal Island, 

 Yarmouth County; but it is probable that a century ago the coast 

 swarmed with these interesting birds. Along the Newfoundland 

 coast the puffin is still to be found breeding, but in much diminished 

 numbers. At Byron Island in the Magdalen group and at Bird Rock 

 puffins still breed, as well as at Wreck Bay, Anticosti, and elsewhere 

 on this island. On the Labrador coast their numbers are rapidly 

 diminishing. The westernmost of the Mingan Islands where auks, 

 murres, gannets, and puffins formerly bred in great numbers, and 

 which bear the name of the Parroquet Islands, are now almost devoid 

 of bird life. The gannets have ceased to nest there and the puffins 

 are almost wiped out. In 1906 we saw no puffins near these islands, 

 and in 1909 only two were to be seen. Near the eastern end of the 

 Mingan group of islands is Bald Island. Here in 1906 we found 

 about 150 pairs of puffins. At Wolf Island, near Cape Whittle, in 



