HORNED PUFFIN 97 



Food. Mr. Ekblaw says: 



It feeds upon the same kind of food as does the murre fish, Crustacea, etc., 

 especially upon a species which, from the Eskimo description, Fabricius trans- 

 lates as "Pulex maris alti rostro serrato." 



Behavior. The Eskimo say that the puffin is not at all shy. It does not dive, 

 when out on the sea, until it is approached very near. It generally feeds in 

 pairs on the water. It flies about as fast as a 1 murre. In season, the Eskimo 

 women frequently catch it in their nets, when they are out on the cliffs pri- 

 marily for murres. 



This puffin seems to be in part a migrant; but not much is known concern- 

 ing its times, route, or extent of migration. Certainly it is found even in 

 winter in Greenland waters. It comes to the Cape York district at the same 

 time as the murres, generally in company with them, about the 10th of May. 

 It leaves about the same time as the murres, in late August. It lives mostly 

 out on the open sea. 



It is rather strange that so little is known about the migrations 

 and winter home of this subspecies. There seem to be no satisfactory 

 records for North America, outside of Greenland, and I could never 

 understand why Greenland should be considered as faunally a part 

 of our Continent. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean from cen- 

 tral western Greenland (Baffin Bay; Disco Bay, north to Smith 

 Sound) east to Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. Some Greenland 

 records of F. a. arctica undoubtedly apply to this form, while records 

 of naumanni from northern Labrador are doubtful. Audubon's 

 record from Grand Manan with little doubt refers to arctica. 



Winter range. Unknown. Probably not far from its breeding 

 grounds if open water occurs. 



Egg dates. Greenland: 16 records, June 1 to July 16; 9 records, 

 June 19 to 20. 



Fratercula corniculata (Naumann) 

 HORNED PUFFIN 



HABITS 



This name seems somewhat misleading and not particularly ap- 

 propriate, for the so-called horn over the eye is not horny at all, but 

 merely a soft epidermal papilla full of living tissue, which the 

 bird can raise or lower at will; moreover a similar, but smaller, ex- 

 crescence is found in the Atlantic puffin. The horned puffin is essen- 

 tially an Alaskan and a Bering Sea bird, being found breeding 

 throughout the whole length of the Alaskan coast, from Cape Lis- 

 burne, north of the Arctic Circle, south nearly to British Columbia; 

 it also breeds westward throughout the Aleutian Islands and on all 

 the coasts and islands of Bering Sea. It would seem as if the name 



