THE PUFFIN. By Mike P. Harris and Sarah Wanless. Illustrations by Keith Brockie.

(1984, 2011) 2012 US edition. 8vo (162 x 240mm). Pp256. Colour and b/w photographs, b/w illustrations by Keith Brockie, graphs, tables, maps. Blue boards, spine titled in gilt.

"With its colourful beak and fast, whirring flight, the Atlantic Puffin is the most recognisable and popular of all North Atlantic seabirds. Puffins spend most of the year at sea, but for a few months of the year they come to shore, nesting in burrows on steep cliffs or on inaccessible islands. Awe-inspiring numbers of these birds can sometimes be seen bobbing on the sea or flying in vast wheels over the colony, bringing fish in their beaks back to the chicks. However, the species has declined sharply over the last decade; this is due to a collapse in fish stocks caused by overfishing and global warming, combined with an exponential increase in Pipefish (which can kill the chicks). The Puffin is a revised and expanded second edition of Poyser's 1984 title on these endearing birds, widely considered to be a Poyser classic. It includes sections on their affinities, nesting and incubation, movements, foraging ecology, survivorship, predation, and research methodology; particular attention is paid to conservation, with the species considered an important indicator' of the health of our coasts." Chapters include:- Puffins and auks; Studies of puffins; Appearance, development and moult; Distribution and status in Britain, Irland and France; Distribution and status in Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, Norway, Russia, Svalbard, Greenland and the western Atlantic; Colony attendance and incubation; Chick rearing and breeding success; Puffin behaviour by Kenny Taylor; Food and feeding; Predators, parasites and competitors; Survival of puffins and the Isle of May population; Puffins away from the colony; Puffins and people; Other threats to puffins; Overview and the future. This edition was published in 2012 in the USA by Yale University Press. It is, to all intents and purposes, identical to the 2011 UK Poyser edition. "There are no other books that cover the species in this much details, or contain the range of information provided." (Stephen W. Kress, Director, Project Puffin).