The Horn-billed Puffin 



consent to the shameless imbecility of "Rhinoceros Auklet." Or if, again, 

 the urge of brevity shall force a compromise, we may suffer the name 

 "Rhino," which actually obtains widely, to pass muster as the colloquial 

 designation of this unique and quite unmistakable species. 



Whatever may be the fashion 

 of midsummer, the Rhino ap- 

 pears off our coasts in fall 

 and winter minus his horn. 

 At such a time he be- 

 comes solitary in his 



Taken on Destruction Island 



' X 



' ^^^H 







A BLACK PINCUSHION 



Photo by the Author 



CHICK OF HORN-BILLED PUFFIN 





habits and hunts well off-shore; or else haunts the rock-bound coasts of 

 the Santa Barbara Islands. One we observed in mid-spring, April 14-17, 

 1915, on Santa Cruz Island, which showed a slight tumescence at the beak, 

 suggestive of the approaching horn, but no appearance of the nuptial 

 plumes upon the sides of the head. This bird hunted anywhere from the 

 water's edge to a point a hundred yards off-shore. He was a stolid-looking 

 creature, as motionless as a floating chip, when on the surface; but once 

 below, he displayed the resolute energy of a torpedo. Once, he got caught 

 in a breaking roller, and actually protruded for an instant from the wave's 

 green wall, but, somehow, he managed to turn tail to the air and to swim 

 back out of sight. His work took him very close to the rocks, however, 

 and at a point where the waves swept without breaking squarely, we 



J520 



