46 THE AUKS 



drift down our eastern coasts can form but an infinitesimal fraction 

 of the vast multitudes which must spend the Arctic nights in as yet 

 unknown reaches of the northern seas. 



THE PUFFIN 

 [F. B. KIRKMAN] 



The puffin is one of the most singular birds that make their 

 home on the ocean. Its singularity, if one considers it well, seems to 

 lie in the striking contrast between the gravity of its demeanour and 

 the fantastic shape and harlequin hue of its beak. As it sits on the 

 top of some rock, presenting its white breast to the sea, it has some- 

 what the appearance of a pantomime Napoleon with a very large 

 and richly coloured false nose. The puffin's gravity and its beak or 

 neb are indeed responsible for most of the popular names which have 

 been bestowed upon it, such as pope, bottle-nose, and sea-parrot. 

 The shape of the beak has given it another name, coulterneb, for 

 it is supposed to resemble a coulter, the fore or cutting iron of the 

 plough. 



In the air the bird has a more graceful appearance than either 

 of the Auk species guillemots and razorbills with which it consorts. 

 This is due to its markedly longer wings. 1 It sometimes whirls about 

 with a lightness and agility that is almost deceptive. Like its 

 congeners it progresses with rapid strokes its narrow wings vibrating 

 rather than flapping. Not that the Auks always fly with rapid beats. 

 I have seen both razorbills and guillemots quit the ledges with slow 

 measured flaps very unlike their ordinary movements, but am not 

 certain whether the puffin does the same. The periods in its flight 



1 Razorbill length 17 inches, wing length 7 '3 ; guillemot length about 18 inches, wing 7'5 ; 

 puffin length 13 inches, wing 6. 



