THE TUFTED PUFFIN 



By WILLIAM LEON DAWSON 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 69 



To those who have been fortunate enough to visit some romantic isle 

 off the North Pacific shore, these quaint fowls make an irresistible appeal. 

 "Sea Parrots" and "Jew Ducks," the sailors call them; and we should 

 all be inclined to poke fun at them for their outlandish head-gear if the* 

 situation were not so perfectly redeemed by the dignified behavior of the 

 birds. Masks are essentially ridiculous ; but these "Masking Puffins" 

 will not countenance laughter, and the grave solemnity of their regard 

 brings you soon to respect, and then to admiration. For my own part, 

 I confess a positive affection for these droll Quakers of the sea. 



Puffins, in common with other species of the Auk family, spend the 

 winter upon the ocean, and are seen near land only 

 when the buffeting of some storm of unusual severity Q uptia 

 strews the sand with their dead and wounded. As 

 spring advances, these birds are provided with an extraordinary array of 

 nuptial ornaments and appendages. Males and females alike acquire, in 

 place of dull black feathers, a white facial mask ; and this is prolonged 

 behind from either side into long, waving feather-"horns" of a rich, deep 

 straw-color. The eyelid becomes brilliant red ; and the great red beak, 

 always stout and strongly compressed, is further augmented basally by a 

 new set of horny plates of a dull olive-green or delicate corn-color, and 

 these, in turn, exactly match the irides in tint. The feet also become 

 bright vermilion, instead of a pale salmon. 



Thus gaily caparisoned, the Tufted Puffins repair to the grassy, sloping 

 hillsides of the rocky islets which constitute their summer homes, and pro- 

 ceed to renovate the old nesting-burrows, or else dig new ones. They 

 work intermittently at this. Stejneger, on the Commander Islands, noted 

 that in the early days of the season the Puffins spent only one day ashore 

 in alternation with two days at sea. It is probable, 

 therefore, that the birds engage in the evolutions of Behavior 



courtship during these "sea-days," for I have never 

 seen anything but the most circumspect behavior when they were ashore. 



It is difficult to exaggerate the gravity of these tranquil birds, abso- 

 lutely silent on all occasions save when caught and harassed, when they 

 may emit a low, raucous groan. They spend much time standing demurely 

 at the entrances of their burrows, and the nearest approach to levity one 



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