66 SEA-BIRDS 



It is probable that between the end of the last glaciation of the Ice 

 Age (about 15,000 B.C. in southern Europe, about 10,000 B.C. in 

 northern) and the present day, i.e. during the Upper Old Stone, 

 Middle Stone, New Stone, and Iron Ages the great auk had quite a 

 wide distribution; judging by the number of bones, and the presence 

 of the bones of young, in some prehistoric kitchen-middens in Britain 

 and western Scandinavia, its breeding-range was possibly wider than 

 it was found to be in historical times (Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfound- 

 land, Iceland, Faeroes and Britain). We cannot, however, quite agree 

 with Clark (1948), who has collected the information about these 

 deposits, that it was certainly wider, for it seems to us likely (see p. 268) 

 that the young great auk left its breeding skerry very early, perhaps, 

 like the razorbill, without either primary or secondary wing-feathers, 

 not much more than a fortnight after hatching; and probably swam 

 with its parents many hundreds of miles before 'fledging.' Clark's 

 list shows great auk bones in middens of the Middle Stone Age in 

 France, Denmark, West Sweden and Norway, of the New Stone Age 

 in France, Denmark and Norway, of the Iron Age in west Sweden 

 and Norway. Several brochs (small forts) in Orkney and Caithness 

 inhabited by the Picts also contained great auk bones; this practically 

 brings the great auk to historical times. 



We suspect that the prehistoric exploitation of the great auk was 

 largely confined to interception of the birds on passage and in their 

 winter quarters;* the final collapse and extinction of the species took 

 place only when Man in modern ships reached and attacked its 

 main breeding-haunts. 



These, as far as can be discovered, were the certain breeding- 

 colonies of the great auk: 



In Britain, St. Kilda and Papa Westray 



In Iceland, Geirfuglasker and Eldey, S.W. of Cape Reykjanes and 



Geirfuglasker in the Westmann Islands 

 In the Magdalen Islands (Gulf of St. Lawrence), Bird Rocks 

 In Newfoundland, Funk Island (east) 



*One of the reasons for thinking that the prehistoric exploitation was at least 

 partly of at-sea birds is that the taking of auks at sea is a technical possibility ; 

 Williamson (1948, p. 157) describes a method of snaring them on a floating board 

 covered with plaited hair loops, to which the auks are attracted by a dummy or 

 decoy bird. This has been, and still is, in use in Iceland and the Faeroes; there is 

 no doubt that primitive hunters were capable of devising such engines. 



