Animal of the week!
Hey all and welcome again to Cherry's 15th edition of
"Animal of the week". Here again are a few breif facts on this week's
animal.
This week's animal...The Puffin
from Compton's Concise Encyclopedia
Copyright (c) 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.
The puffin belongs to the family Alcidae and they are related to auks,
murres and guillemots. The puffin is also called the sea parrot or
bottlenose, and is one of the world's oddest looking birds.
It's great triangular hooked beak (which
is nearly as large as the head), is colored dull yellow at the base,
grayish blue in the middle, and vermilion at the end. At each corner
of the mouth is an orange circle. The face is white, with grayish blue
markings around the eye that make it look like the face of a circus
clown.
The Atlantic puffin and the large-billed puffin are found on the
East coast of North America. The tufted puffin of the West coast has
a long crest of yellow feathers over each eye.
Puffins live on fish and other marine life. They are expert swimmers
and divers and use their short wings to help propel them underwater.
Because of their life in icy waters their plumage is thick.
These birds are clumsy on land. Their legs are set far back on the
body, giving them an awkward waddle. They perch on the flat of the foot
instead of on the toes, as most birds do. This gives them the odd
appearance of being seated in an upright position.
Puffins breed in large colonies on rocky cliffs. They do not
build nests. The female lays a single egg in a depression or crevice
of the rock. Both parents take turns sitting on the egg until it is
hatched.
