440 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



four curved grooves. Stranger still are the horned puffins and tufted 

 puffins of the Pacific shores, the latter descending as far south as the 

 Farralones, those rocks which guard the entrance to San Francisco Bay. 

 Farther north, among the Aleutian Islands, they occur in immense num- 

 bers, and are eagerly limited by the natives. Their flesh and eggs are 

 used for food, while the skins, turned feather side in, are made into cloaks 

 or other garments. The birds are, like most water-birds, very fat; and to 

 remove the oil from the skin a peculiar process is resorted to: ''they are 



Fig. 371. — Gathering murres' eggs in Alaska. 



chewed over and over again by the women and children until all the fatty 

 matter has been chewed out, that being their method of tanning." 



A I .out the fust of May the tufted puffin makes its appearance on the 

 islands of the Bering Sea in incredible numbers, and then is the opportu- 

 nity of the Aleuts. They fly fast but low; and a party of bird-catchers 

 makes one think of a number of crazy entomologists. Each is armed with 

 a large net, stretched on a hoop four feet in diameter, and supported on 

 pol.-s ten or twelve feel Long. As the birds fly past, this nest is frantically 

 waved in the air just as the insect-hunter does when a butterfly passes 

 him : and each stroke is apt to bag one of these birds. 



The gulls and the terns are closely allied ; but in most cases they may 

 be separated by the character of the tail, — forked in the terns, even or 



