270 Bird -Lore 



crevices, and rock-hewn chambers. Upon the Farallone Islands, California, 

 these birds have little opportunity for digging in the earth, and little necessity 

 for providing fresh burrows, for crevices and cubby-holes abound. These 

 are, for the most part, of an ample and substantial character, as though well 

 maintained, and most of them have, doubtless, seen use measured by cycles 

 rather than generations. Many eggs, and sitting birds as well, are visible 

 from the outside; while some of the nesting-sites are nothing more than the 

 innermost recesses of niches and caves occupied by Murres. On the Farallones, 

 there is a fierce, albeit silent, competition between these silent birds and the 

 rabbits which swarm over the rocks. I have seen impulsive bunnies which, 

 fleeing from fancied danger and taking refuge in the first burrow at hand, 

 emerged more hastily than they went in. The Tufted Puffin is a dangerous, 

 as well as a determined foe, and a bite from that rugged beak will cut to the 

 bone. 



Although equipped with so formidable a weapon, the birds, in digging 

 their burrows, appear to depend upon their feet. These are provided with 

 nails as sharp as tacks, and the "finish" of the nesting-chamber usually exhibits 

 a criss-cross pattern of fine lines. 



Long grass and dense thickets, as of salal, salmon-berry bushes, or dwarf 

 spruce, occasionally afford refuge to birds hard-pressed for room. Here the 

 Puffin, starting from some exposed edge, drives a tunnel through the matted 

 vegetation and deposits its egg upon the surface of the ground, in shade almost 

 as intense as that afforded by the earth itself. 



Only one egg is laid, dull white as to hue, with faint vermiculations of brown 

 and purplish. Because the nest-lining is usually of the scantiest, a few salal 

 leaves or bits of grass, the egg is often so soiled by contact with the earth 

 as to pass for dingy brown. 



The baby Puffin is your true Puffin, and it is undoubtedly he who gave 

 this trivial name to the group. He is, indeed, a mere puff-ball of down, for 

 he is densely covered at birth with down at least an inch long, and you could 

 blow him away (Pouf !) if he were not so fat and anchored in a hole. The down 

 is of a uniform dull slaty black, and the only touch of color about this infant 

 pin-cushion is a showing of dull red near the middle of the otherwise black bill. 



In assuming the first plumage, the juvenal shows many of the characters 

 of the winter adult, but it is whitish or light gray below. With the approach 

 of its first spring, it takes on first the feather tufts, of a dull brownish hue, 

 then the white facial mask, with corresponding bill changes; but whether 

 or not the yearling bird breeds, is an open question. The non-breeding birds 

 remain at sea, where they are nearly as exempt from scrutiny as are baby 

 sea-serpents. 



The Tufted Puffin enjoys the widest breeding range of any bird in the 

 North Pacific, except the Pigeon Guillemot; and, although not so thoroughly 

 distributed as that species, it is undoubtedly far more abundant. On the 



