The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1910-10-27

Unfortunately, for all the immaculate
Wilderness of his head and neck he
has the same telltale blood fieck or.
his lower Jaw as has his
lesser relative; he has the same cold
eye, and even a blacker back. a real
sooty black; and II there are no traces |
of blood-guiltiness between the nests,
1t is because he goes one bet.
ter than they and swallows his NUT |
ton whole. Indeed, fishermen say that |
he stands by the puffin's burrow like |
craven image, watching patiently,
and then, when at last the victim
comes out, he is suddenly caught by
the back of the neck, has the life
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 1t disem'
bowels its victims while still alive. In
fact, the only evidence | have Is dis.
tinctly to the contrary. Mr.. j. w. Par
sons, late of the Farnes lighthouse,
and most acute observer of bird-life,
tells me that he once saw lesser
blackjack kill putin. He did not
see It catch the bird, but 1t was killed
by being shaken as terrier shakes a
drowned. Then the gull flew with 1t
on to rock and, after disemboweling
it, tried many times to swallow 1t
whole, but could not get 1t down. On
the land the pufiin's footing seems UNI
certain; In the air its fight is labored;
therefore the place to see 1t at its
best must be as 1t hunts its prey un-
der water.
Much do envy observers like Ed
mund Selous who have watched 1t as
1t wings its way beneath the waves
with it's scarlet legs trailing behind.
AS you approach in boat a little
group of pufflns 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 near
enough for you to see how 1t Is done,
| first one and then another disappears.
! You see no dive, just bird sitting
motionless, and then little swirl
where was the bird. But II you want
to see one of the fairy sights of bird
land, go to puffin-town and, resting
your back against a convenient rock,
be content to sit still for an hour. In
front of you is 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.
clumsy foot is sure sooner or later
to break into some putin habitation
All .hn yuffins that your advent dis
turbed are bobbing up and sit in hun
dreds in the bay below. Presently
If you are quiet, they begin to whirI
up from the sea in twos and threes
and then scores and battalions. AS
likely as not the very first that pitcf
will alight within two or three yards
of you. Others, as they circle round
will draw up their feet, which hat
been, extended as If for alighting, ant
so pass out to sea once more. Blu
before long puffin-town will be dense
ly populated by it's staid little inhah
itants, all bearing that fixed puzzled
expression that makes them look al
most comical in their solemnity. Som,
stand still with just an occasional
Tapping of their wings as II TO dr.,
them, others take aimless little run
on their dapper little red legs an,
then stand still. looking round, as
puzzled what the next move is to be
Others fall awkwardly as they align
and promptly drop down hole In tn
ground, just as the next-door neigh
Dor maybe pops up from another hol
and whirrs out to sea- In little grou
of five two have caught hold of on
another's beaks and are having a tus
sic, but whether In amity or not car
not tell. Every now and then quite
quarter of the population will sudder
ly bend forward and in an instant /
a great cloud are whirring out to Sc;
while those left behind look puzzle
at their sudden departure and Just q
puzzled when in few minutes all tn
wanderers return. each taking up II
position again.
Many observers have been puzzle
, to understand how the putin manage
, to catch one fish after another an
| pack each methodically across 4
A jaws, but as Mr.. King opens the bea
4 of dead putin yovkhave the answ,
/. from the puffin's own mouth, f
z there on its palate are the rows
|. barbs sloping back, between which Il
:. fish are filed. There is much more
q be told about this interesting lit
r bird. especially If all were known. B.
s puzzled as the putin looks, there
one thing known to that little mir
|. behind the mask, but which puzzl
|. us, and that is the still unsolved my
}. terry of where he spends his whit
/. time