12. Tufted Puffin. Lunda cirrhata.
Tufted Puffin. Puffin.
Range.–Pacific Coast from Alaska southward to southern California, breeding locally throughout their range.
Tufted Puffins are the largest of the Puffins. In the breeding plumage, they are a sooty brownish or black color; the cheeks are white, and a long tuft of straw colored feathers extends back from each eye; the bill is bright red and greenish yellow. They breed commonly on the Farallones, where two or three broods are raised by a bird in a single season, but much more abundantly on the islands in the north.
White.
Their single eggs are laid in burrows in the ground or else in natural crevices formed by the rocks. The eggs are pure white or pale buff and are without gloss. They very often have barely perceptible shell markings of dull purplish color. The eggs are laid about the middle of June. Size 2.80 × 1.90. Data.–Farallone Is., May 27, 1887. Single egg laid in crevice of rocks. Collector, W. O. Emerson.
13. Puffin. Fratercula arctica arctica.
Range.–North Atlantic Coast, breeding from the Bay of Fundy northward. Winters from breeding range along the New England Coast.
White..
The common Puffin has the cheeks, chin and underparts white; upper parts and a band across the throat, blackish. Bill deep and thin, and colored with red, orange and yellow. They breed in large numbers on Bird Rock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The nest is either among the natural crevices of the rocks, or in burrows excavated in the ground by the birds. These burrows vary in length from two and a half to four or five feet. Except upon the positive knowledge of the absence of the bird, it is a hazardous thing to put the hand in one of these burrows for the bird can, and will nip the fingers, sometimes to the bone. They lay but a single egg, usually dull white and unmarked, but in some cases obscurely marked with reddish brown. Size 2.50 × 1.75. Data.–So. Labrador, June 23, 1884. Single egg laid at end of burrow in the ground. Collector, J. H. Jameson.
13a. Large-billed Puffin. Fratercula arctica naumanni.
A more northerly subspecies of the last, inhabiting the Arctic region on the Atlantic side. The bird is somewhat larger but otherwise indistinguishable from the common species. The eggs are exactly the same or average a trifle larger. Size 2.55 × 1.80. Data.–Iceland, July 6, 1900. Single egg in hole under a rock. Collector, Chas. Jefferys.
14. Horned Puffin. Fratercula corniculata.
Range.–Pacific Coast from Alaska to British Columbia. The Horned Puffin differs from the common in that the blackish band across the throat extends upwards in a point to the bill. Their nesting habits are precisely the same as those of the preceding species. A single pure white egg is laid; the shell is slightly rougher than those of the others. Size 2.65 × 1.80. Data.–Round Is., Alaska, June 24, 1884. Single egg laid at end of burrow in ground; no nest. Collector, G. L. Kennedy.
15. Rhinoceros Auklet. Cerorhinca monocerata.
Range.–Pacific Coast, breeding from British Columbia northward and wintering southward to Lower California.
The Rhinoceros Auklet or Horned Auk has a much smaller bill than the Puffins; in the summer this is adorned at the base by a horn from which it takes its name. There are also slender plumes from above and below the eyes. Unlike the Puffins, these birds sit upon their whole tarsus.
They nest on islands of the North Pacific Coast from Vancouver northward. A single egg is laid in crevices among the rocks or in burrows in the ground. It is similar both in size and shape to that of the Puffins, but is often quite heavily blotched with brown. Size 2.70 × 1.80. Data.–Unak Is., Alaska, June 30, 1900. Egg laid in a fissure of the rocks; no nest. Collector, F. Weston. |