The Puffin 



81 



yellow, and with the tip carmine. There is an orange 

 wattle at the corner of the mouth, and above and below 

 the eye is a grey horny wart or protuberance. These 

 wattles are shed, as 

 also is a large por- 

 tion of the brightly- 

 coloured bill, these 

 parts being renewed 

 in the following 

 summer. A similar 

 phenomenon is seen 

 in the American 

 Knob-billed Pelican 

 (Pelecanus trachy- 

 rhynchus), which, 

 during the breeding 

 season, has a horny 

 excrescence on its 

 bill which after- 

 wards falls off. 



The phenomenon 

 of a bird assuming 

 ornamental features 

 on its face during 

 the breeding season, 

 and then moulting 

 them like ordinary 

 birds moult their 

 feathers when the 

 season comes for 

 their change of plu- 

 mage, is certainly a 



wonderful one. The method by which birds assume their 

 different phases of colouration has as yet not been suffici- 

 ently studied, but the most frequent mode of change is 



?|P*S&* 



A Puffin in the nesting season, showing the facial 

 ornamentation afterwards shed. 



