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What is a Puffin?
 A small bird - only 10" tall - with a large brightly colored triangular beak.
Love the cold water, 32-68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Were over hunted in the Gulf of Maine, their native American home, and by 1900 there were only 2 isolated colonies remaining in Maine.
National Audobon Society has been working on a project since 1977 to restore the Puffin colonies to Maine.
Taken from http://www.projectpuffin.org/puffins.html; Puffin originally meant "fatling." The name was used to describe the chubby chicks of the Manx Shearwater, with which puffin chicks were confused. In the last half of the 1800’s the puffin was given the scientific name of Fratercula arctica, which means "little brother of the north" in Latin. Little brother may also be interpreted as ‘little friar’ an allusion to the puffin’s black and white plumage which is reminiscent of a friar’s robes. A second connotation of little friar may be drawn from the puffin’s sometime habit of holding it’s feet together when taking off, suggestive of hands clasped together in prayer. Regardless of the scientific name, local names still abound. These include such colorful names as "clown of the ocean" and "sea parrot." People used to claim that a puffin was actually a cross between a bird and a fish because of its superb ability to swim underwater. This allowed some people to eat puffin meat on lent and Fridays to avoid the prohibition of meat by the Catholic Church on these days.
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