Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-10-26

INV
of skin at the inner angle of
the eye that under the name of
the third eyelid makes the Monaghan
eye such distinctive feature of his
human representative. This setting
Of the eye in an oblique chink gives
the putin that fixed, quizzical express
sion which has led most observers to
call it quaint-looking bird, but which
to me irresistibly calls to mind the
Chinaman's bland-looking face that,
like a mask, gives no sign of the work
ing of the inner mind.
1t is a disappointment, after seeing
your first putin at close quarters at his
home in puff1n-town, to turn up his
description in any bird-book and find
after all the meticulous description of
his feathers and the order of the col
ors on his rainbow-tinted beak, that
this distinctive feature of the screwed
up eye is never mentioned. The Illus
trations in these books are as disap-
pointing as the text, the eye being as
much like a rabbits as puffin's. Be
sides the Mongolian eye, he has the
:
offensive and unobtrusive, he is silent
IS he stands upright, or moves about
somewhat uncertainty on his dapper
little red legs among the noisy crowd
on the rocks. 1t is only from the
depths of his burrow in the spongy
red soil, or from his chink among the
lichen-covered rocks, that the sound
of his language reaches your ear. In
the privacy of his home he now and
then utters strange sounds that when
first heard resemble somewhat in their
subdued information the distant low
ing OF cattle or shouting of men. But
when you know him better you will
fancy you can hear in his deep,
mournful "Arrh!" weary sigh indica-
tive of his fate. For he is the patient
coolie of the shore, with worse than
indentured labor for his fate. All the
ruling classes look to him to provide
them with an easy meal. Every time
the proud peregrines offspring in the
eyrie whimper for food a putin some
where has to pay toll by giving up the
ghost; and yet, although this is almost
an hourly occurrence on a summers
day, the other puffins continue uncom-
planning and unheeding.
A model parent the putin must be,
for though it lays but single egg, 1t
manages to maintain it's numbers year
after year, in spite of the heaviest tax
alton. There is no colony of the
lesser black-backed gull, where puffins
t. ~
corpses of this humble little bird
Were l a putin, this is the fate |
should most resent. The peregrine at
least wastes nothing, leaves nothing
but the beak and legs; but the cold
blooded gull simply disembowels the
poor bird and leaves the rest to rot
have never seen the tragedy of it's
death, whether it is killed on land or
as it swims on the sea or as it flies
through the air; but, were | a hungry
bird of prey, | think it would tempt
me most as it skins through the air
For all the world it looks like a fat
mackerel fitted with a pair of wings
which hardly seem strong enough to
carry its plump little body to its des-
lludLlOll- III idCl. dS II WHITES up from
the sea to its burrow, as likely as not
it viii turn head over heels as it
strikes the ground and then get up
and make a wry face as it splits the
dirt out of its mouth: or else it will
dash headlong against a rock with a
smack that you would think would
kill it, and then look round as stupid
~ as a sheep that i'll its laundering
course fulfils its fate as mutton AL
though each colony of lesser black
backs shows the bloody tribute of the
unfortunate puffin that of the greater
blackjack shows no evidence of this
kind
In the whole community of a hun
dred nests of this ruler OF the archi-
pelago-for not even the fierce pere-
g11ne disputes his sway-there was
not single putin corpse to be seen.