GREAT AUK. 415 



the horrors of a region covered with eternal ice. Here it 

 is commonly found upon the floating masses of the gelid 

 ocean, far from land, to which alone it resorts in the season 

 of procreation. 



Deprived of the use of wings, degraded as it were from the 

 feathered ranks, and almost numbered with the amphibious 

 monsters of the deep, the Auk seems condemned to dwell 

 alone in those desolate and forsaken regions of the earth ; 

 yet aided by all-bountiful Nature, it finds means to subsist, 

 and triumphs over all the physical ills of its condition. As 

 a diver it remains unrivalled, proceeding beneath the water, 

 its most natural element, almost with the velocity of many 

 birds in the air. It thus contrives to vary its situation with 

 the season, migrating for short distances, like the finny prey 

 on which it feeds. In the Faroe Isles, Iceland, Greenland, and 

 Newfoundland these birds dwell and breed in great numbers. 

 They nest among the steepest cliifs of islands, remote from the 

 shore, in the vicinity of floating ice, taking possession of cav- 

 erns, and the crannies and clefts of rocks ; or they dig for them- 

 selves deep burrows in which they lay their only egg, about the 

 size of that of the Swan, whitish yellow, marked with numerous 

 lines and spots of black, which present to the imagination the 

 idea of Chinese characters. They are so unprolific that if this 

 egg be taken away they lay no other that season. Their time 

 of breeding is June and July. 



The Auk is known sometimes to breed in the Isle of St. 

 Kilda, and in Papa Westra, according to Mr. Bullock, for sev- 

 eral years past no more than a single pair had made their 

 appearance. It feeds on large fish, and also on some ma- 

 rine plants, as well as on those which grow on the rocks con- 

 tiguous to their holes or burrows. The young birds tear up 

 the roots of the Rhodiola rosea. Many are said to breed on 

 the desert coasts of Newfoundland, where they have been seen 

 by navigators, though not recently. According to Pennant, the 

 Esquimaux, who frequented this island, made clothing of the 

 skins of these birds. The older ones are very shy, and but 

 rarely venture to the shore, on which they walk badly, though 



