Cassell's book of birds; vol. 4

by Alfred Edmund Brehm

The COULTERNEB, or ARCTIC PUFFIN (Mormon fratercula), one of the most remarkable birds we have yet described, although an inhabitant of northern regions, is a regular summer visitant to our own, where it is known by a great variety of names all indicative of the strangeness of its appearance, such as the "Pope," "Mullet," "Sea Parrot," "Jammie," and the "Norrie." The Coulterneb is at once recognisable from all its brethren by the peculiar structure of its beak, the shortness of its neck, and the shape of its head. Its bill, when seen in profile, has a somewhat triangular shape, being high at the base, and remarkably compressed at its sides; at its origin it is covered with a thick fold of skin which is prolonged around the corner of the mouth; its anterior is deeply furrowed, rather obtuse at its tip, and very sharply edged. In this last respect the beak cannot be compared with that of any other bird. The feet are three-toed, strongly webbed, and provided with sharp claws, the points of which are turned sideways; the small feeble wing is rounded at its extremity, and the short tail composed of sixteen feathers. The plumage on the upper parts of the body is short, thick, compact, and smooth, whilst underneath it is somewhat longer, and more fur-like in appearance. The top of the head, a band around the neck, and the entire mantle are black; the cheeks and throat ash-grey. The under parts of the body are white shading to grey or black at the sides. The eye is dark brown, eye-ring coral-red, beak pale red at its tip, lighter in the furrows, and blueish grey towards the base; the corner of the mouth is orange-yellow, and the foot vermilion-red. The young birds are distinguishable by the comparative shallowness of their beaks, and the inferior brilliancy of their colours. This strange bird is twelve inches long, and twenty-three to twenty-three and a half broad; the wing measures six inches and a half to six and three-quarters, and the tail two inches and three-quarters.

The Coulternebs inhabit the northern seas as far as 82° north latitude, and are met with equally upon the northern coasts of Europe, Asia, and America; a few pairs are known to breed in Heligoland; further north they become more abundant, and in the Frozen Ocean they swim in countless multitudes; indeed, millions of them may be seen in the summer-time crowding the vicinity of their breeding-places. In Great Britain they appear on the coast about April, and betake themselves to various stations for the purpose of breeding, frequenting for this purpose the cliffs or turfy ground above them, and occasionally making use of rabbit-burrows. The Isles of Man, Anglesea, and Wight, are all frequented by them, and also the Scilly Isles, which in the fourteenth century were held under the king for the annual payment of six shillings and eightpence or 300 Puffins. The Yorkshire coast, the Fern Islands, and the coasts and islands of Scotland are also frequented by them.

"On the coast of Labrador," says Audubon, "is Perroquet Island, known to all the cod-fishers, and celebrated for the number of Puffins that annually breed there. As we rowed towards it, although we found the water literally covered with thousands of these birds, the number that flew over and around the green island seemed much greater, insomuch that one might have imagined[Pg 263] half the Puffins in the world had assembled there. This far-famed isle is of considerable extent; its shores are guarded by numberless blocks of rock, and within a few yards of it the water is several fathoms in depth. The ground rises in the form of an amphitheatre to the height of about seventy feet, the greatest being from north to south, and its southern extremity fronting the Strait of Belleisle. For every burrow in the island previously visited by us, there seemed to be a hundred here; on every crag and stone stood a Puffin, at the entrance of every hole another, and yet the sea was covered and the air filled by them. * * * The burrows were all inhabited by young birds, of different ages and sizes, and clouds of Puffins flew over our heads each holding a fish by the head. * * * While flying the Puffins emitted a deep croaking noise, but they never dropped the fish, and many of them, when brought down by a shot, still held their prey fast. I beheld with concern the extraordinary affection manifested by these birds towards each other, for whenever one fell dead or wounded on the water its mate or a stranger immediately alighted by its side, swam around it, pushed it with its bill, as if to urge it either to fly or dive, and seldom would leave it until an oar was raised to knock it on the head, when, at last aware of the danger, it would plunge below in an instant. Those which fell wounded immediately ran with speed to some hole and dived into it, on which no further effort was made to secure them. Those which happened to be caught alive in the hand bit most severely, and scratched with their claws at such a rate, that we were glad to let them escape. The burrows here communicated in various ways with each other, so that the whole island was perforated as if by a multitude of subterranean labyrinths, over which one could not run without danger of falling at almost every step. The voices of the young sounded beneath our feet like voices from the grave, and the stench was extremely disagreeable, so that as soon as our boats were filled with birds we were glad to get away. During the whole of our visit the birds never left the place, but constantly attended to their avocations. Here one would rise from beneath, there within a few yards of us another would alight with a fish and dive into its burrow, or feed the young that stood waiting at the entrance. The young birds were far from being friendly with each other, and those we carried with us kept continually fighting so long as we kept them alive. They used their yet extremely small and slender bills with great courage and pertinacity, and their cries resembled the wailings of young whelps. The smaller individuals were fed by the parents by regurgitation, or received little pieces of fish which were placed in their mouths; the larger picked up the fish that were dropped before them, but almost all of them seemed to crawl to the entrance of the hole for the purpose of being fed. In all the burrows that communicated with others, a round place was scooped out on one side of the avenue, in the form of an oven, whilst in those that were single this oven-like place was found at the end, and was larger than the corridor. All the passages were flattish above and rounded beneath as well as on the sides. In many instances we found two birds sitting each on its egg in the same hole."

Their brood consists of but a single egg, about the size of that of a Duck; of this the shell is coarse and uneven, and the colour pure white, at least until they become soiled and dirty. Both sexes sit upon the eggs by turns, but how long the process of incubation lasts we are unable to state; some observers say five weeks. The dress of the newly-hatched young is composed of a thick down, of a light grey colour, spotted with coal-black. During the first day or two of its life, its cry is piping and very sad; but the note soon gets stronger, yet it is not till they are fledged that they learn to utter the shrill peculiar cry of the old birds. The young grow slowly, and after the lapse of a month are able to leave their holes, and, under the guidance of their parents, plunge into the sea.

Both parents evince the greatest affection for their young one; they go miles away in order to procure it food, and will face any danger in its defence. Sometimes, if the female is lost, the male will take upon himself the entire charge of his nestling, defending it with really serious bites of his formidable beak, and indefatigably providing for it the means of subsistence. Should their first egg[Pg 264] be taken away, the mother lays a second, and, if deprived of that, a third, generally in the same hole. If both parents are destroyed, other birds will supply their places, and voluntarily devote themselves both to the incubation of the egg and the rearing of the young. The owners of the localities where these birds build make them a source of considerable profit; they always rob the birds of their first egg, but generally leave the second to be hatched and reared; as soon as it is nearly fledged, however, it likewise is taken possession of, and thousands upon thousands are thus killed and salted for winter food.

In the Fern Islands, there being no rabbit-holes, these Puffins are obliged to dig their own burrows. According to Mr. Selby, this operation is commenced in May, a hole being generally excavated to a depth of three feet, often in a curving direction, and occasionally with two entrances. So intent are the birds upon their work of digging, which is generally performed by the males, that they will sometimes allow themselves to be captured by the hand; the same authority states that a similar indifference to what is passing around them is noticeable during the business of incubation. In St. Kilda, where their return is hailed with joy as affording an abundant supply of food, they are taken both by hand and by means of a horsehair noose, attached to the end of a rod. The Coulternebs can scarcely be called birds of passage, although during the winter season many of them journey far south; strictly speaking, they only migrate from their breeding-places to the open sea, and hence back again to the cliffs and islands, where they rear their young. Their life, indeed, may be considered as consisting of two epochs, viz., their summer residence upon the rocks, and their winter life upon the ocean; of this latter part of their existence we have still much to learn. Our first acquaintance with the Coulternebs began in the vicinity of Loffoden, and the first circumstance which arrested our attention was the manner of their flight over the sea, keeping so close to the waves that they had rather the appearance of skating over the surface than of flying through the air. The bird, in fact, in these peregrinations avails itself both of its feet and wings, sliding as it were quickly from wave to wave, half flying and half swimming, striking the air with its wings and the water with its feet, and advancing by a sort of undulating course that exactly follows the contour of the rising and sinking waves. During this remarkable kind of progression the beak seems to be employed in cleaving the water, reminding the spectator of the Scissor-bill (Rhynchops). When it rises from the waves, however, it flies straight on with untiring wings, and moves so rapidly that the sportsman who first tries his hand at shooting them generally fails to hit the mark. In its mode of swimming, the Coulterneb differs altogether from any other bird of its race; it rides lighter upon the wave, or sinks at will to any required depth, dives without the slightest apparent exertion, and without even disturbing the water around it, It will remain submerged for upwards of three minutes, and, if we believe the statements of some observers, will plunge to a depth of thirty fathoms. Upon dry land it walks well, but with a hopping vacillating step; rises at once from its seat into the air, and alights from its flight without difficulty. When at rest it usually sits upright upon the soles of its feet and tail, or else it lies flat on its belly upon the surface of the rock. When sitting erect, its head and neck are in constant motion, as though it were perpetually looking for something that it had lost, giving it a most comical appearance. Its voice is a sort of deep scream at times it resembles the sound made by a man when yawning, or by a discontented dog. The food of the Coulternebs consists of crustaceans and small fishes; but it is principally with the latter that they feed their young. What may be the special use of the curiously-constructed beak it is not easy to say; all that we know upon the subject is that they are able to use it with great adroitness, both while procuring their usual food, and when lopping the green herbage, which in summer scantily clothes the rocky fastnesses where they rear their young. As a weapon of defence, both from the sharpness of its edges and the strength of its muscles, it is really formidable.

Plate 40, Cassell's Book of Birds

FRATERCULA ARCTICA ____ PUFFIN

(about ½ Nat. size)