Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/113

Rh P U F P U F 101 and the future has accepted an estimate dictated by anger and spite. See H. von Treitschke, ' ' Samuel von Pufendorf," Preitssische Jahrbiicher, 1875, vol. xxxv. p. 614, and vol. xxxvi. p. 61 ; Bluutschli, Deutsches Stoats-Worter- buck, vol. viii. p. 424, and Geschichte des allgemeinen Statsrechts und der Politik, p. 108 ; Lorimer, The Institutes of the Law of Nations, vol. i. p. 74 ; Droysen, " Zur Kritik Pufendorf' s," in his Abhandlungen zur neueren Geschichte ; Roscher, Geschichte der National-Oekonomik in Deutschland, p. 304; Franklin, Das deutsche Reich nach Severinus von Monzambano. (E. N.) PUFF-ADDER. See VIPER. PUFF-BIRD, the name first given, according to Swain- son (Zool. Illustrations, ser. 1, ii., text to pi. 99), by English residents in Brazil to a group of Birds known to ornithologists as forming the restricted Family Bucconidse, but for a long time confounded, under the general name of Barbets, with the Capitonidx of modern systematists, who regard the two Families as differing very considerably from one another. Some authors have used the generic name Capita in a sense precisely opposite to that which is now usually accorded to it, and the natural result has been to produce one of the most complex of the many nomen- clatural puzzles that beset Ornithology. Fortunately there is no need here to enter upon this matter, for each group has formed the subject of- an -elaborate work the Capi- tonidse being treated by the Messrs Marshall, 1 and the Bucconidx by Mr Sclater 2 in each of which volumes the origin of the confusion has been explained, and to either of them the more curious reader may be confidently referred. The Bucconidse are zygodactylous Birds belonging to the large heterogeneous assemblage in the present work gener- ally looked upon as forming the "Order" Picarisz (see ORNITHOLOGY, vol. xviii. p. 41), and commonly considered nowadays to be most nearly allied to the Galbulidas (JACAMAR. vol. xiii. p. 531), and like them confined to the Neotropical Region, in the middle parts of which, and especially in its Sub -Andean Sub -region, the Puff -birds are, as regards species, abundant ; while only two seem to reach Guatemala and but one Paraguay. As with most South-American Birds, the habits and natural history of the Bucconidse have been but little studied, and of only one species, which happens to belong to a rather abnormal genus, has the nidification been described. This 'is the Chelidoptera tenebrosa, which is said to breed in holes in banks, and to lay white eggs much like those of the King- fisher and consequently those of the Jacamars. From his own observation Swainson writes (loc. cit.) that Puff-birds are very grotesque in appearance. They will sit nearly motionless for hours on the dead bough of a tree, and while so sitting " the disproportionate size of the head is rendered more conspicuous by the bird raising its feathers so as to appear not unlike a puff ball. . . . When frightened their form is suddenly changed by the feathers lying quite flat." They are very confiding birds and will often station them- selves a few yards only from a window. The Bucconidse. almost without exception are very plainly-coloured, and the majority have a spotted or mottled plumage suggestive of immaturity. The first Puff-bird known to Europeans seems to have been that described by Marcgrave under the name of " Tamatia" by which it is said to have been called in Brazil, and there is good reason to think that his description and figure the last, comic as it is in outline and expression, having been copied by Willughby and many of the older authors apply to the Bucco maculatus of modern Ornithology a bird placed by Brisson (Orni- thologie, iv. p. 524) among the Kingfishers. But if so, Marcgrave described and figured the same species twice, since his " Matuitui" is also Brisson's " Martin-pescheur tachete du Bresil" Mr Sclater in his Monograph divides the Family into 7 1 A Monograph of the Capitonidse or Scansorial Barbets, by C. H. T. and G. F. L. Marshall, London, 1870-71, 4to. 2 A Monograph of the Jacamars and Puff-birds, or Families Gal- bulidse and Bucconidae, by P. L. Sclater, London, 1879-82, 4to. genera, of which Bucco is the largest and contains 20 species. The others are Malacoptila and Monacha each with 7, Nonnula with 5, Chelidoptera with 2, and Micro- monacha and Hapaloptila with 1 species each. The most showy Puff- birds are those of the genus Monacha with an inky-black plumage, usually diversified by white about the head, and a red or yellow bill. The rest call for no particular remark. (A. N.) PUFFIN, the common English name of a sea-bird, the Fratercula arctica of most ornithologists, known however on various parts of the British coasts as the Bottlenose, Coulterneb, Pope, Sea-Parrot, and Tammy-Norie, to say nothing of other still more local designations, some (as Marrott and Willock) shared also with allied species of Alddse, to which Family it has, until very lately, been invariably deemed to belong. Of old time Puffins were a valuable commodity to the owners of their breeding- places, for the young were taken from the holes in which they were hatched, and " being exceeding fat," as Carew wrote in 1602 (Survey of Cornwall, fol. 35), were "kept salted, and reputed for fish, as coming neerest thereto in their taste." In 1345, according to a document from which an extract is given in Heath's Islands of Scilly (p. 190), those islands were held of the crown at a yearly rent of 300 Puffins 3 or 6s. 8d., being one -sixth of their estimated annual value. A few years later (1484), either through the birds having grown scarcer or money cheaper, only 50 Puffins are said (op. cit., p. 196) to have been demanded. It is stated by both Gesner and Caius that they were allowed to be eaten in Lent. Ligon, who in 1673 published a History of the Island of Barbadoes, speaks (p. 37) of the ill taste of Puffins " which we have from the isles of Scilly," and adds " this kind of food is only for servants." Puffins used to resort in vast numbers to certain stations on the coast, and are still plentiful on some, reaching them in spring with remarkable punctuality on a certain day, which naturally varies with the locality, and after passing the summer there, leaving their homes with similar precision. They differ from most other Alcidss in laying their single egg (which is white with a few grey markings when first produced, but speedily begrimed by the soil) in a shallow burrow, which they either dig for them- selves or appropriate from a rabbit, for on most of their haunts rabbits have been introduced. Their plumage is of a glossy black above the cheeks grey, encircled by a black band and pure white beneath ; their feet are of a bright reddish orange, but the most remarkable feature of these birds, and one that gives them a very comical ex- pression, is their huge bill. This is very deep and laterally flattened, so as indeed to resemble a coulter, as one of the bird's common names expresses ; but moreover it is parti- coloured blue, yellow, and red curiously grooved and still more curiously embossed in places, that is to say during the breeding -season, when the birds are most frequently seen. But it had long been known to some observers that such Puffins as occasionally occur in winter (most often washed up on the shore and dead) presented a beak very different in shape and size, and to account for the difference was a standing puzzle. Many years ago- Bingley (North Wales, i. p. 354) stated that Puffins " are said to change their bills annually." The remark seeing 3 There can not be much doubt that the name Puffin given to these young birds, salted and dried, was applied on account of their downy clothing, for an English informant of Gesner's described one to him (Hist. Avium, p. 110) as wanting true feathers, and being covered only with a sort of woolly black plumage. It is right, however, to state that Caius expressly declares (Rarior. animal. libeUus, fol. 21) that the name is derived "a naturali voce pupin." Prof. Skeat states that the word is a diminutive, which favours the view that it v. MS originally used as a name for these young birds. The parents were probably known by one or other of their many local appellations.