Destruction by Man 45 



ingenuity of many inventors was applied to the 

 making of more effective guns — weapons with 

 which men could kill more birds. The old 

 flint-lock was replaced with a more reliable gun 

 discharged by means of a cap. The muzzle-load- 

 ing gun gave way to a breech-loading gun, which 

 could be fired three times as fast. Then came 

 the double-barrelled breech-loader, nearly twice 

 as deadly as the single-barrelled, and this was 

 followed by the " pump " gun and automatic shot 

 guns said to be about ten times as effective as 

 the old muzzle-loader. 



Before these weapons in the hands of thou- 

 sands of men, the wild fowl disappeared like 

 snow before a summer wind, some of them never 

 to return. The great auk, a flightless sea-bird 

 inhabiting the coasts and islands of the North 

 Atlantic, was the first to become extinct. From 

 early times it had been the victim of attacks by 

 voyagers and fishermen who killed it for its 

 flesh, feathers, and oil. The fact that it nested in 

 large colonies and that it could not fly resulted 

 in its being destroyed in great numbers. It 

 held its own fairly well, however, until its plum- 

 age came into demand for feather beds when it 

 disappeared. No living specimen has been seen 

 since 1842. 



The Labrador duck was the next to go, but in 



