PUFFIN ISLAND 7 



upright on the so-called feet, actually the toes, and when 

 it rests on the tarsi sinks forward on to its breast. Photo- 

 graphy has brought this fact to light, but before the days 

 of photography Pennant had noticed it. The other 

 is the word "grotesque"; what is it about the puffin 

 which is, in our eyes, grotesque ? The big, highly 

 coloured beak, the squat, upright figure, and the bird's 

 actions have caused much hilarity. It is what Dr. F. 

 Heatherley calls its " Chinese " eye that gives its solemn 

 countenance the quaint appearance; but the eye is not 

 oblique, not Chinese; the curious effect is produced by 

 its deep setting in the full cheek and the conspicuous 

 backward curving groove. 



" The young," says Pennant, " are hatched in the 

 beginning of July. The parents have the strongest 

 affection for them ; and if layed hold of by the wings will 

 give themselves most cruel bites on any part of the body 

 they can reach, as if actuated by despair." Now the 

 puffin, which possesses a brightly coloured and very 

 powerful beak, certainly can bite when " layed hold of," 

 but it generally manages to seize the hand or clothes of 

 the aggressor, and leaves its mark. I have seen it stated 

 that the bird will not bite in the dark, so that it is safe 

 to handle it in the burrow; my experience does not con- 

 firm this. A lighthouse keeper who was with me on one 

 visit carefully wrapped his hand in his handkerchief 

 before pushing it into a burrow; " I know Tommy 

 Noddy," he remarked. When seized the puffin utters 

 a deep growl, and the same note may be heard from birds 

 in the holes and on the water, but the best emphasis is 

 from the handled victim. It " is horrible," according 

 to Pennant; "not unlike the efforts of a dumb person 

 to speak " ; perhaps it is as well that we cannot understand 

 the language I 



The description supplied by the Rev. J. Evans in 1804 



3 



