The Tufted Puffin 



levity one ever sees is the accidental 

 shaking of the pendent plumes when 

 the bird turns its head. 



If a hillside colony is approached 

 suddenly from shore, the standing 

 population, presumably males, pitches 

 downward to sea by a common im- 

 pulse; while the nest occupants come 

 shelling out by twos and threes and 

 dozens, as one traverses the honey- 

 combed earth. Once a-wing, the 

 Puffin returns again and again to 

 satisfy his curiosity, employing for 

 the purpose great horizontal circles 

 or ellipses, and slowing up a little at 

 perigee. Or, if the nesting island 

 be a small one, the Puffins will circle 

 it a score of times. You know that 

 the birds are justly apprehensive, 

 but there is something so weird and 

 funereal about the whole performance ! 



Taken on the S. E. Farallon Photo by the Aulho 



FLAGGING OUR ATTENTION 



Taken on the S. E. Farallon 



THE TUFTED COULTERNEB AT HOME 



