Puffins 



397 



Puffins. We may 



first consider the Puffins, 

 or Sea Parrots, which are 

 certainly the most gro- 

 tesque and in many re- 

 spects the most interesting 

 in the entire group. They 

 are chiefly remarkable for 

 the high, extremely com- 

 pressed, grooved, and 

 brilliantly colored bill, 

 which seems altogether too 

 large for the size of the 

 body, as may be seen 

 from the accompanying 

 figures, and, moreover, 

 it was discovered a few 

 years ago that portions of 

 the bill are regularly shed 

 at the close of the nesting 

 season, so that in winter 

 the bill is quite different 

 from its summer appear- 

 ance. " By examining the 

 bill of nesting birds," says 

 Dr. Stejneger, "we find 

 that it consists of two 

 quite differently colored 

 parts, a terminal one, 

 with several transverse 

 grooves, and a basal, pur- 

 plish, yellow, or green 

 part separated from the 

 former by a furrow, and 

 again subdivided by other 

 furrows into several dis- 

 tinct pieces. Toward the 

 end of the nesting season 

 the furrows between the 

 plates become deeper, un- 

 til finally they are entirely 

 detached, when they fall 

 off, giving place to a 

 brownish soft mem- 

 brane." In the Tufted 



