100 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



The southernmost breeding colony of horned puffins, so far as I 

 know, is on Forrester Island in southern Alaska, where Prof. Harold 

 Heath (1915) estimated that "not over two or three thousand made 

 their homes" in the summer of 1913. According to his notes, "they 

 form small colonies in the face of a cliff some distance from human 

 habitation and at all times appear to be at peace with their more 

 numerous relatives," the tufted puffins. They apparently nest here 

 in burrows in the soil, in essentially the same manner as the tufted 

 puffins. 



Eggs- The horned puffin lays a single egg, which is large for the 

 size of the bird and "ovate" in shape with a tendency toward "ovate 

 pyriform"; the shell is thick, roughly granulated and lusterless. 

 The ground color is dull white, dirty white, or creamy white. There 

 are seldom any very conspicuous spots, but nearly all eggs show more 

 or less evident shell markings, spots or scrawls, of "pale lavender 

 gray," or pale olive or buff; some eggs appear quite spotless but even 

 these, on close examination, have very faint markings. The varia- 

 tion in size is considerable, but the average size is only slightly less 

 than in the eggs of the tufted puffin. The eggs of the two species 

 can not be distinguished with certainty. The measurements of 38 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 74 by SO, 73 by 50.5, 58 by 

 43.5, and 61.5 by 41 millimeters. 



Young. Both sexes assist in the process of incubation and in the 

 care of the young. The period of incubation is unknown. Mr. Nel- 

 son (1887) says of the development and behavior of the young: 



The young take wing in August at the Seal Islands, but north of that point 

 they are rarely fledged before some time in September. 



On September 9, 1879, I visited a small islet a few miles from St. Michaels, 

 where the puffins were breeding in great numbers. The islet arose about 25 

 feet above the sea and was a mass of rugged basaltic bowlders. Among the 

 crevices hundreds of the puffins were breeding. Both species were here, but 

 the tufted species was in very small numbers compared with the host of the 

 other kind. The young were mostly about half grown, but many only just 

 from the shell and some not even yet hatched were found. The young could 

 be easily located under the stones by the thin metallic piping note they kept 

 uttering during the parents' absence. As we walked about the old birds could 

 be heard scuttling about below, uttering a hoarse, snuffling, rattling note, 

 which sounded at a short distance like a low growling noise. With a slipping 

 noose on the end of a ramrod it was an easy matter to capture any number 

 of them by simply walking about and peering down into the crevices, and 

 when a bird was seen pass the noose over the bird's bill and drag the captive 

 out. They would scratch and bite viciously and utter their usual note in a 

 loud hoarse key. 



During our stay the air was full of birds circling about, and often passing 

 within a few feet of us. The young were easily captured by 'removing the 

 stones, and they also fought when taken. The loose rocks were surrounded by 

 a network of passages, and if it had not been for the birds stupidity they could 

 have easily avoided capture. As we began removing the stones overhead, young 



