jd^yyxQ-ct.' '&vL — . 
y about twenty pair of Tufted 
Puffip were breeding in the burrows which 
were situated oil the banks that surrounded 
some parts of the island. The burrows 
extended into a depth of about four feet, | 
at the end of which they deposit a single 
egg on the bare earth. We only obtained 
eight of their eggs, as our time on the 
island was limited, and it generally takes ' 
from five to ten minutes to obtain one of 
them. The burrows never run straight, 
but nearly always curve just before the 
nest (if such it can be called) is reached./ 
Ck/WAjJLa-vSL . fjZjjZ . . . f~\- , R. 
Another bird, rather common, is the Tufted 
1 ufhn ( Lunda cirrhotOj) , known on the island as 
the Sea Parrot. They are probably the most 
curious sea-bird on the coast. I was at a loss 
| t0 see why they had such large and powerful 
beaks until one day an enraged bird covering 
an egg, took firm hold of my finger and then I 
knew' that with its big grooved bill as a weapon 
of defence, the bird was a dangerous adversary, 
even for man. They lay one large egg in a bur¬ 
row or hole in the rock, in which are carelessly 
, scattered coarse dry weeds. They have their 
favorite breeding places or rookeries, where 
numbers await the diligent collector; but he 
must be a cool-headed climber, for many of the 
eggs are laid in dangerous places and over three 
hundred feet above the sea. 
0 ^©. I* . /w. )= - / 3 /. 
O+O .ALL . f>.HX 
ii Afternoon, about St. Michaels, Al¬ 
aska, August 15,1878, E.W.Nelson 
The report of the gun, re-echoing from the opposite bluffs, 
seemed to dislodge a perfect shower of Puffins from their resting- 
places about the entrances to their burrows. Each came whirring 
down by me, some almost into my face, to get a nearer view of the 
intruder; then, after a wide circuit, they returned and dropped 
heavily into the water a short distance off. The Common Puffins 
[Mormon cirrhcito ,) I found far less numerous than the Homed 
Puffins (M. corniculata), but they were equally curious. 
Bull. N.O.C, 5, Jan,, 1880, p.33 
Osteological Notes upon Puffins and Ravens. —In examining some 
skeletons of adult specimens of Lund a cirrhata , kindly loaned me by the 
Smithsonian Institution, I find, occupying the usual site of the bone, hut 
completely enveloped by the tarsal theca, a rudimentary accessory meta¬ 
tarsal, or the hallux metatarsal, which is freely articulated, but all evidence 
of a basal phalanx of the toe is absent. Such a rudimentary element in 
the skeleton of a bird is an interesting fact, and it sees its counterpart in 
the rudimentary limbs in such a lizard as Ofthisaurus ventrcilis • 
AvLi. V. mr./. jz'r 
