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. Far all on Photo by the Author 
FLAGGING OUR ATTENTION 
Taken on the S. E. Farallon 
Photo by the .4 uthor 
THE TUFTED COULTERNEB AT HOME 
1509 
