88 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



bones of the forearm and hand, the humerus being 

 proportionately as long as in the existing species 

 of Auks, all of which are able to fly. As Mr. Lucas 

 (one of the ablest historians of the Great Auk) points 

 out, this modification of structure, however un- 

 fortunate it proved to its possessor, was correlated 

 with the bird's aquatic habits ; the resistance of 

 water being much greater than that of air, a wing- 

 requiring less surface and more power than one 

 formed exclusively for aerial locomotion would be 

 best adapted for submarine flight. 



Respecting the geographical distribution of the 

 Great Auk, the impression widely prevails that the 

 bird was an inhabitant of the Arctic regions ; and 

 more than one naturalist has suggested that the 

 lost species may still be found in the Polar solitudes. 

 Vain hope, with not a shred of evidence to support 

 it ! So far as is known, the Great Auk was confined 

 to the North Atlantic, and there is no reliable 

 evidence whatever that the bird ranged anywhere 

 within the Arctic Circle.^ On the eastern shores of 

 the North Atlantic the bird ranged from Iceland 

 to the Bay of Biscay, breeding certainly in the 



^ Professor Eeinhardt says that there is doubt attaching to the 

 locality of the specimea (uow in the Copenhagen Museum) from 

 Greenland, reputed to be from Fiskernas, above the Arctic Circle. 



