THE TUFTED PUFFIN 
By WILLIAM LEON DAWSON 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 69 
To those who have been fortunate enough to visit some romantic isle 
off the North Pacific shore, these quaint fowls make an irresistible appeal. 
“Sea Parrots” and “Jew Ducks,” the sailors call them; and we should 
all be inclined to poke fun at them for their outlandish head-gear if the 
situation were not so perfectly redeemed by the dignified behavior of the 
birds. Masks are essentially ridiculous; but these “Masking Puffins” 
will not countenance laughter, and the grave solemnity of their regard 
brings you soon to respect, and then to admiration. For my own part, 
I confess a positive affection for these droll Quakers of the sea. 
Puffins, in common with other species of the Auk family, spend the 
winter upon the ocean, and are seen near land only 
when the buffeting of some storm of unusual severity Nuptial 
1 1 11 Ornaments 
strews the sand with their dead and wounded. As 
spring advances, these birds are provided with an extraordinary array of 
nuptial ornaments and appendages. Males and females alike acquire, in 
place of dull black feathers, a white facial mask; and this is prolonged 
behind from either side into long, waving feather-“horns” of a rich, deep 
straw-color. The eyelid becomes brilliant red ; and the great red beak, 
always stout and strongly compressed, is further augmented basally by a 
new set of horny jilates of a dull olive-green or delicate corn-color, and 
these, in turn, exactly match the irides in tint. The feet also become 
bright vermilion, instead of a pale salmon. 
Thus gaily caparisoned, the Tufted Puffins repair to the grassy, sloping- 
hillsides of the rocky islets which constitute their summer homes, and pro- 
ceed to renovate the old nesting-burrows, or else dig new ones. They 
work intermittently at this. Stejneger, on the Commander Islands, noted 
that in the early days of the season the Puffins spent only one day ashore 
in alternation with two days at sea. It is probable, 
therefore, that the birds engage in the evolutions of 
courtship during these “sea-days,” for I have never 
seen anything but the most circumspect behavior when they were ashore. 
It is difficult to exaggerate the gravity of these tranquil birds, abso- 
lutely silent on all occasions save when caught and harassed, when thev 
may emit a low, raucous groan. They spend much time standing demurely 
at the entrances of their burrows, and the nearest approach to levity one 
273 
Demure 
Behavior 
