LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 83 
on which they have been living. As soon as the puflins are sufficiently 
abundant about the islands where they breed the natives organize 
merry hunting parties to capture them. On certain days they fre- 
quent their breeding grounds i in immense numbers, flying back and 
forth in straight lines, crossing and recrossing the small grassed- 
topped island, just high enough to clear it. The birds are swift 
fliers and seem unable to change their course quickly. The Aleuts 
take advantage of this peculiarity and catch them in large, long- 
handled nets, which are suddenly raised in front of the birds and 
which they can not dodge. It is a simple process when the birds are 
flying thickly, and large numbers are taken in this way. The birds 
are killed by biting the head or breaking the back. Besides furnish- 
ing a welcome supply of fresh meat, the birds are skinned and the 
skins are cured and used for clothing. A parka made of puffin skins 
is not only a very warm but a very light and serviceable garment. 
About 45 skins are‘required to make one parka, which is made like 
a shirt with a hood and is worn with the feathers on the inside. 
Nesting—Among the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands we found the 
tufted puffin breeding in a variety of situations. On June 15, 1911, 
we visited a small rocky island in Nazan Bay, Atka Island, on the 
rounded top of which enough soil had accumulated to support a rank 
growth of heavily tufted grass. As we drew near we could see a few 
quaint white faces, with flowing plumes, peering out from the crev- 
ices in the rocks, and many more of them half hidden in the long 
grass. The comical solemnity of this species and the long snowy 
locks, slightly tinged with yellow, have suggested the appropriate 
name by which it is called the “old man of the sea.” Long before 
we landed the puffins had all left the island, flying out to meet us, 
circling about us several times until their curiosity was satisfied and 
finally settling down on the water to watch proceedings from a safe 
distance. The crevices in the rocks were inaccessible, but there were 
plenty of burrows in the soil among the grass. We dug out several 
burrows, but found no eggs and concluded that most of the birds had 
not laid. 
On Bogoslof Island, on July 4, 1911, we found a few pairs of 
tufted puffins breeding in burrows in the sandy bluffs above the 
beaches and in the sandy and stony slopes aboux Castle Rocks, among 
the great murre colonies. Their burrows were rather shallow, and 
in one I could plainly see the egg without opening the burrow; they 
were generally profusely lined with feathers and straws. Some of 
the material must have been stolen from the neighboring gulls’ nests 
or brought from a long distance; for there was no vegetation on the 
island. 
On Walrus Island, on July 7, 1911, we found numerous pairs nest- 
ing under the loose rocks in the center of the island among the 
55916—19—Bull. 107——7 
