94 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



steadily on " until the last of the species had dis- 

 appeared from the face of the earth, and the place 

 to which it resorted for untold ages knew it no 

 more." Mr. Lucas obtained the most ample 

 evidence of the bird's former abundance. He tells 

 us that " on the northerly slope a stroke of the 

 hoe anywhere M^ould bring to light at least a score 

 of bones " ; and again, " while many humeri were 

 thrown aside while digging, the collection was 

 found to contain over fourteen hundred specimens 

 of this bone." The material brought back by him 

 was estimated to be greater than that obtained by 

 all other expeditions combined, and to include 

 nearly two barrels of bones, from which ten or 

 eleven skeletons of the Great Auk have been made 

 up. Previous to the visit of Mr. Lucas to Funk 

 Island, but two naturalists had explored the place. 

 Stuvitz went there in 1841, and discovered some 

 bones ; Professor Milne visited the island in 1874, 

 and after an hour's work brought away bones 

 belonging to some fifty birds and the inner linings 

 of several eggs ; whilst nine years previous to the 

 latter naturalist's visit, an expedition sent out for 

 guano procured three " mummies " or dried bodies 

 of the Great Auk. 



The extinction of this noble bird is all the more 



