The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-10-20

shaken out of him and is then gulped
down holus-bolus.
| do not wish to malign the lesser
black-backed gull to the extent of sug.
costing by implication that it disem-
bowels its victims while still alive. In
fact, the only evidence l have is dis
tinctly to the contrary. Mr.. ]. w. Par.
sons, late of the Farnes lighthouse,
and a most acute observer of bird-life.
tells me that he once saw a lesser
blackjack kill a putin. He did not
see it catch the bird, but it was killed
by being shaken as a terrier shakes a
rat. and hen ducked under water until
drowned. Then the gull flew with II
on to a rock and, after disemboweling
it, tried many times to swallow II
whole, but could not get it down. On
the land the pufin's footing seem un.
certain; in the air its fight is labored;
therefore the place to see it at its
best must be as it hunts its prey un.
der water.
Much do | envy observers like Ed
AANAo o(AOoo II nave "dl0htu Il dc
it wings its way beneath the waves
with its scarlet legs trailing behind.
AS you approach in a boat a little
group of pufins sitting on the water,
you get an inkling of their water
magic. When you get too near to them
for their peace of mind but not lear
enough for you to see how it is done,
first one and then another disappears.
You see no Adive, just a bird sitting
motionless, and then a little swirl
where was the bird. But IL you want
to see n of the fairy sights of bird
land, go to pufiin-town and, resting
your back against a convenient rock,
be content to sit still for an hour. In
front OF you is a shelving tract of bare
brown earth nearly an acre in extent.
riddled in all directions with burrows
that SO undermine the ground that,
however carefully you walk across it,
a clumsy foot is sure sooner or later
to break into some putin ~habitation.
All the puffins. that your advent dis
turbed are bobbing up and sit in hum
dreds In the bay below. Presently,
If you are quiet, they begin to whirr
and then scores and battalions. AS
likely as not the very first that pitcA
will alight within two or three yGrds
of you. Others, as they circle round.
will draw up their feet, which had
been extended as if for ~alighting, and
CO nocC ont fD Coo D-4o "a
before long pufiin-town will be dense
dy populated by its staid little inhab-
itants, all bearing that fixed puzzled
expression that makes them look al
most comical in their solemnity. Some
stand still with just an occasional
tapping of their wings as If to dry
them, others take aimless little runs
on their dapper little red legs and
then stand still. looking round, as IL
puzzled what the next move is to be.
Others fall awkwardly as they alight
and promptly drop down a hole in the
ground, just as the next-door neigh
Dor maybe pops up from another hole
and whirrs out to sea. In a little group
of five two have caught hold of one
another's beaks and are having a tus-
sic. but whether in amity or not | can
not tell. Every now and then quite a
quarter of the population will sudden
ly bend forward and in an instant in
a great cloud are whirring out to sea.
while those left behind look puzzled
at their sudden departure and lust as
puzzled when in a few minutes all the
wanderers return. each taking up its
position again.
Many observers have been puzzled
to understand how the putin
TO catch one fish after another and
pack each methodically across its
jaws, but as Mr.. King opens the beak
of a dead putin you have the answer
from the puffin's own mouth. foy
there or its palate are the rows of
barbs sloping back. between which the
fish are filed. There is much more TO
be told about this interesting little
bird, especially if all we're known. But
puzzled as the putin looks, there is
one thing known to that little mind
behind the mask, but which puzzles
us, and that is the still unsolved mys-
terry of where he spends his winter
time.
FRANCIS HEATHERLEY.