100 BULLETIN 107, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
The southernmost breeding colony of horned puffins, so far as I 
know, is on Forrester Island in southern Alaska, where Prof. Harold 
Heath (1915) estimated that “not over two or three thousand made 
their homes” in the summer of 1913. According to his notes, “ they 
form small colonies in the face of a cliff some distance from human 
habitation and at all times appear to be at peace with their more 
numerous relatives,” the tufted puffins. They apparently nest here 
in burrows in the soil, in essentially the same manner as the tufted 
puffins. 
Eggs.—The horned puffin lays a single egg, which is large for the 
size of the bird and “ ovate” in shape with a tendency toward “ ovate 
pyriform”; the shell is thick, roughly granulated and lusterless. 
The ground color is dull white, dirty white, or creamy white. There 
are seldom any very conspicuous spots, but nearly all eggs show more 
or less evident shell markings, spots or scrawls, of “pale lavender 
gray,” or pale olive or buff; some eggs appear quite spotless but even 
these, on close examination, have very faint markings. The varia- 
tion in size is considerable, but the average size is only slightly less 
than in the eggs of the tufted puffin. The eggs of the two species 
can not be distinguished with certainty. The measurements of 38 
eggs showing the four extremes measure 74 by 50, 73 by 50.5, 58 by 
43.5, and 61.5 by 41 millimeters. 
Ye oung.—Both sexes assist in the process of incubation and in the 
care of the young. The period of incubation is unknown. Mr. Nel- 
son (1887) says of the development and behavior of the young: 
The young take wing in August at the Seal Islands, but north of that point 
they are rarely fledged before some time in September. 
On September 9, 1879, I visited a small islet a few miles from St. Michaels, 
where the puffins were breeding in great numbers. The islet arose about 25 
feet above the sea and was a mass of rugged basaltic bowlders. Among the 
erevices hundreds of the puffins were breeding. Both species were here, but 
the tufted species was in very small numbers compared with the host of the 
other kind. The young were mostly about half grown, but many only just 
from the shell and some not even yet hatched were found. The young could 
be easily located under the stones by the thin metallic piping note they kept 
uttering during the parents’ absence. As we walked about the old birds could 
be heard scuttling about below, uttering a hoarse, snuffling, rattling note, 
which sounded at a short distance like a low growling noise. With a slipping 
noose on the end of a ramrod it was an easy matter to capture any number 
of them by simply walking about and peering down into the crevices, and 
when a bird was seen pass the noose over the bird’s bill and drag the captive 
out. They would scratch and bite viciously and utter their usual note in a 
Joud hoarse key. 
During our stay the air was full of birds circling about, and often passing 
within a few feet of us. The young were easily captured by removing the 
stones, and they also fought when taken. The loose rocks were surrounded by 
a network of passages, and if it had not been for the birds stupidity they could 
have easily avoided capture. As we began removing the stones overhead, young 
