. Bird lore . res, with short grass and a few hardy flowers in the center, andedged and bound by smooth gray ledges, on which in places were piled,helter-skelter, immense boulders, in one part, near the fog-signal house, cover- Machias Seal Islands 241 ing about an acre. Here was located the colony of breeding Puffins, estimatedby the light-keeper to number some three hundred birds, and at once hither Idirected my steps, followed overhead by a cloud of complaining Arctic Terns,whose nests, with eggs, were among the rocks and by the edges of the fifty or sixty of the Puffins were sit
. Bird lore . res, with short grass and a few hardy flowers in the center, andedged and bound by smooth gray ledges, on which in places were piled,helter-skelter, immense boulders, in one part, near the fog-signal house, cover- Machias Seal Islands 241 ing about an acre. Here was located the colony of breeding Puffins, estimatedby the light-keeper to number some three hundred birds, and at once hither Idirected my steps, followed overhead by a cloud of complaining Arctic Terns,whose nests, with eggs, were among the rocks and by the edges of the fifty or sixty of the Puffins were sitting on the tops of the higher boul-ders, continually shifting positions as some came in from the sea and otherswent down to fish. At my near approach, they flew in scattered flocks to a dis-tance of some few hundred feet off-shore, where flocks were continually sittingduring my two days stay on the islands. To observe them more closely, Iplaced my umbrella blind between two big boulders in the center of their. PUFFIN. NOTE THAT THE BIRD, UNLIKE MURRES AND AUKS,STANDS ONLY ON ITS TOES resting-places, and, retiring, spent an hour or so in arranging the tent on theother side of the island, in preparation for the night. On returning to my blind among the ledges, I was pleased to find the Puffinswell accustomed to it, even to alighting within twenty or thirty feet, whichdistance was halved and quartered in another hours waiting motionless alighting for a moment, as they came in twos or threes in a great circlefrom just off the breaking surf, they soon were resting almost motionless on thetops of the rocks, and at times within a few feet of my reach, to the number oftwenty or thirty or more at a time. The wind shaking the cloth of the shelterwas at first startling; but, after a few hurried departures of the whole alightedflock at once, they settled themselves to the new conditions, peering sharplynow and then at an extra-hard shake, or starting a moment at the click of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
