The Tufted Puffin 



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 Juve- 

 nal 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 correspond- 

 ing bill changes; but 

 whether or not the year- 

 ling 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 abun- 



Taken on the S. E. 



Farallon 



HIS HONOR, 



Photo by the Author 



THE TUFTED PUFFIN 



1513 



