134 CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



is found in the old treatises written in Latin, and the change to alca is of course imma- 

 terial. The meaning of the word is in question. The form awk (which we observe some 

 late English scholars use) might suggest a relationship with awkward, in view of these 

 ungainly fowl ; but awkward means simply left-handed. Quite probably alk is related, 

 and not distantly, to elk, the bird and the beast being the largest, or most notable, or 

 most prevailing animals of their respective kinds in the consideration of the people. 

 But elk is in Latin alee (quite like alca), and this is uniform with the Greek a\K7i, mean- 

 ing strength, prowess ; one of the names of Hercules, for example, being derived there- 

 from. The probability that alk, elk, alee, and a\K-r\ are radically if not still more closely 

 related, is heightened by the other vernacular names of this bird, c/ure-fowl, goir-fuyd, &c., 

 these qualifying prefixes being similar to those seen in gerj'alon, and recognized by 

 Steenstrup in inventing his genus Gyralca, the idea of size, strength, or other predomi- 

 nance being evident. If this be so, the alk, the Gare-fowl, is the fowl, par excellence, as 

 elk, alee, is the great beast, as GW-falco is the falcon ; with the implication of some honor 

 or special esteem. We are thus led directly to Hierofalco, which see, No. 498. Lat. 

 impennis, featherless, i. e., wingless, with reference to the diminutive wings, unfit for 

 flight ; in, negative, and penna, a feather. 



Though the Great Auk is extinct in North America, and has doubtless disappeared 

 from the face of the earth, we still keep the place in memmio.ni of this " most honourable 

 and antient fowle." 



