Free The Sea of Adventure by Enid Blyton

doing?" asked Lucy-Ann, as a puffin began to scrape vigorously at the soil, sending a shower of it backwards.
     
    "It's digging a burrow, I should think," said Dinah. "They nest underground, don't they, Jack?"
     
    "Rather! I bet this island is almost undermined with their holes and burrows," said Jack, walking forward towards the colony of busy birds. "Come on — do let's get near to them. Kiki, keep on my shoulder. I won't have you screaming like a railway engine at them, and scaring them all away."
     
    Kiki was most interested in the comical puffins. She imitated their call exactly. "Arrrrr!" they said, in deep, guttural voices. "Arrrrrrrr!"
     
    "Arrrrrr!" answered Kiki at once, and various birds looked up at her enquiringly.
     
    To the children's huge delight the puffins were not in the least afraid of them. They did not even walk away when the children went near. They allowed them to walk among them, and although one aimed a peck at Philip's leg when he stumbled and almost fell on top of it, not one of the others attempted to jab with their great beaks.
     
    "This is lovely!" said Lucy-Ann, standing and gazing at the extraordinary birds. "Simply lovely! I never thought birds could be so tame."
     
    "They're not exactly tame," said Jack. "They're wild, but they are so little used to human beings that they have no fear of us at all."
     
    The puffins were all among the cushions of bright sea-pinks. As the children walked along, their feet sometimes sank right down through the soil. The burrows were just below, and their weight caused the earth to give way.
     
    "It's absolutely mined with their burrows," said Philip. "And I say — it's not a very nice smell just about here, is it?"
     
    It certainly wasn't. The boys soon got used to it, but the girls didn't like it. "Pooh!" said Lucy-Ann, wrinkling up her nose. "It's getting worse and worse. I vote we don't put our tents up too near this colony of puffins — it's as bad as being near a pig-sty."
     
    "Don't make a fuss," said Jack. "Hey, come here, Kiki!"
     
    But Kiki had flown down to make friends. The puffins gazed at her fixedly and solemnly.
     
    "Arrrrr!" said Kiki politely. "ARRRRRRRR! God save the King!"
     
    "Arrrrr!" replied a puffin, and walked up to Kiki, rolling from side to side like a small sailor. The two looked at one another.
     
    "I shall expect Kiki to say how-do-you-do in a minute," said Dinah, with a little squeal of laughter. "They both look so polite."
     
    "Polly put the kettle on," said Kiki.
     
    "Arrrrr!" said the puffin, and waddled off to its hole. Kiki followed — but apparently there was another puffin down the hole, who did not want Kiki's company, for there was soon an agonised squeal from the parrot, who shot out of the hole much more rapidly than she had gone in.
     
    She flew up to Jack's shoulder. "Poor Kiki, what a pity, what a pity!"
     
    "Well, you shouldn't poke your hose in everywhere," said Jack, and took a step forward. He trod on a tuft of sea-pinks, which immediately gave way, and he found his leg going down into quite a deep burrow. Whoever lived in it didn't like his leg at all, and gave it a vicious nip.
     
    "Ooooch!" said Jack, sitting down suddenly and rubbing his leg. "Look at that — a bit right out of my calf!"
     
    They went on through the amazing puffin colony. There were puffins on the ground, in the air — and on the sea too! "Arrrrr! Arrrrr! Arrrr!" their deep calls sounded everywhere.
     
    "I'll be able to take some magnificent photographs," said Jack happily. "It's a pity it's too early for young ones to be about. I don't expect there are any puffin eggs yet either."
     
    The puffins were living mainly in the green little valley between the two high cliffs. Philip looked about to see if there was any good place to pitch their tents.
     
    "I suppose we all want to make Puffin Island our headquarters?" he said. "I imagine that nothing will drag Jack away from here now. He's got cliffs where guillemots