Auks, Murret, Puffins 



entire colony breaks up and follows the exodus of fish, completely 

 deserting their nesting grounds, where any young ones that may 

 be hatched late are left to be preyed upon by hawks and ravens. 

 "Notwithstanding this apparent neglect of their young at this 

 time, when every other instinct is merged in the desire and neces- 

 sity of migration," wrote Nuttall, "no bird is more attentive to 

 them in general, since they will suffer themselves to be taken by 

 the hand and use every endeavor to save and screen their young, 

 biting not only their antagonist, but, when laid hold of by the 

 wings, inflicting bites on themselves, as if actuated by the agonies 

 of despair; and when released, instead of flying away, they 

 hurry again into the burrow." A hand thrust in after one may 

 drag the angry parent, that has fastened its beak upon a finger, to 

 the mouth of the tunnel; but a certain fisherman off the coast of 

 Nova Scotia, who lost a piece of solid flesh in this experiment, 

 now gives advice freely against it. 



The beak that is able to inflict so serious an injury is this 

 bird's chief characteristic. It looks as if it had been bought at a 

 toyshop for some reveller in masquerade; but the puffin wears it 

 only when engaged in the most serious business of life, for it is 

 the wedding garment donned by both contracting parties. It 

 is about as long as the head, as high as it is long, having flat 

 sides that show numerous ridges or furrows from the fact that 

 each represents new growth of soft matter that finally hardens 

 into horn as the nesting season approaches, only to disappear bit 

 by bit until nine pieces have been moulted or shed, very much as 

 a deer casts its antlers. The white pelican drops its "centre- 

 board " in a similar manner. In the puffins there is also a moult 

 of the excrescenses upon the eyelids, and a shrivelling of the col- 

 ored rosette at the corner of the mouth, peculiarities first scientif- 

 ically noted by L. Bereau about twenty years ago. The change 

 of plumage after moult is scarcely perceptible. 



On land the bird walks upright, awkwardly shuffling along 

 on the full length of its legs and feet. It is an accomplished 

 swimmer and diver, like the grebes and loons, although, unlike 

 them, it uses its wings under water. When a strong gale is 

 blowing off the coast, the puffins seek shelter in the crevices of 

 the rocks or their tunnels in the sand ; but some that were over- 

 taken by it on the open sea, unable to weather it, are sometimes 

 found washed ashore dead after a violent storm. Mr. Brewster, 



'9 



