Donna Rutsnhke, age 11, of Medicine Hat, Alta., Canada, for her question:

WHAT IS A PUFFIN?

The puffin is a sea bird about 12 inches long. He wears black and white and you might mistake him for a youthful penguin. However, unlike a penguin, he can fly and he never visits the penguin's favorite haunts in the south polar region. What's more, the puffin has several clownish features. His head is very big for the size of his body and so are his wide webbed feet.

His enormous bill looks like a false nose painted with bright stripes of red and blue. His fat cheeks and bulging chest are snowy white and he wears a jet black collar under his chin.  The puffin belongs to the northern oceans. There he spends much of the day crowded on a high rocky ledge with a group of his relatives. Now and then a flock flies around in the air. And now and then