410 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



to Funk Island and a witness of the destruction of the Great 

 Auks there. Mr. Carroll stated that the birds were very 

 numerous on Funk Island and were hunted for their feathers 

 about forty-five to fifty years before 1876, but that soon after 

 that time they were wholly exterminated. This would place 

 the extermination of the birds there in the decade between 

 1830 and 1840. ^ 



Singular as it may seem, the destruction of these birds went 

 on so much faster in America than in Europe that the species 

 probably was extirpated first on this side of the Atlantic. 



Mr. Ruthven Deane published in the American Naturalist 

 (Vol. VI, 1872, p. 368) the statement that a specimen of the 

 Great Auk was found in the vicinity of St. Augustine, Labra- 

 dor, in November, 1870; but Dr. Coues, in his Key to North 

 American Birds, says that there appears to be some question 

 respecting the character, date and disposition of this alleged 

 individual; and it seems very improbable that the species 

 lived down to 1870. 



To-day there are about eighty mounted specimens of the 

 bird, and about seventy eggs, in the museums of the world. ^ 

 Little is known about the habits of the Great Auk. Toward 

 the last it was difficult to shoot, as it had learned to dive at 

 the flash of a gun. It seems to have been easily frightened 

 by noise, but not so much by what it saw; for Grieve tells us 

 that in 1812, near Orkney, one was enticed to a boat by hold- 

 ing out fish, and was killed with an oar. The Auk swam with 

 head lifted, but neck drawn in, ready to dive instantly at the 

 first alarm. Its notes were gurgles and harsh croaks. On its 

 island home it stood or rather sat erect, as its legs were far 

 back. It laid but one egg. It never defended its egg, but 

 bit fiercely when caught. 



Its food is believed to have been mainly fish; but Fabri- 

 cius found, in the stomach of a young bird, rose root (Sedum 

 rhodoriola) and other littoral vegetation, but no fish. Rose 

 root grows in the crevices of sea cliffs. Grieve, however, 

 doubts whether the bird taken by Fabricius was of this species. 



« Allen, J. A.: Amer. Nat., 1876, Vol. X, p. 48. 



2 Grieve, Symington: The Great Auk, supplementary note, 1897, p. 26t. 



