268 SEA-BIRDS 



bill alone has no Pacific representative; and its extinct relative the 

 great auk (which though placed now in Pinguinus should be restored 

 to Alca) had only a North Atlantic distribution. Besides the five 

 mentioned, the little auk, Plautus alle, breeds only on the Atlantic 

 side of the arctic, and operates in winter only firom the edge of the 

 Atlantic pack-ice to a varying distance in the open Atlantic Ocean 

 and North Sea. It fills an ecological niche in the North Atlantic, 

 similar to that occupied by the five auklets* in the North Pacific. 



So we have six living auks to consider in our study of North Atlantic 

 birds. The somewhat sombre history of the extinct one has already 

 been enlarged upon in our discussion (p. 64) of the impact of man 

 upon the sea-birds. The great auk was a large bird of penguin-like 

 habits and appearance, standing about two feet high. Newton (1861) 

 gives the following notes from descriptions by Icelanders who had seen 

 the great auk alive: "They swam with their heads much lifted up, but 

 their necks drawn in; they never tried to flap along the water, but 

 dived as soon as alarmed. On the rocks they sat more upright than 

 either the guillemots or razorbills, and their station was further re- 

 moved from the sea. They were easily frightened by noise, but not 

 by what they saw. . . . They have never been known to defend their 

 eggs, but would bite fiercely if they had the chance when caught. 

 They walk or run with httle short steps, and go straight like a man." 

 We would also quote Martin (1698) again: "It comes without regard 

 to any wind, appears the first of May, and goes away about the middle 

 of June" at St. Kilda. As already pointed out (p. 70), this may have 

 been quite accurate, since it is just possible that the great auk could 

 have completed the terrestrial period in seven weeks, allowing about 

 40 days for incubation, and nine days for the chick on the land (com- 

 pare these periods in the razorbill, described below). 



The great auk bred in colonies. It was easily driven into a cul-de- 

 sac. As a result slaughter in a wholesale manner took place at its 

 remote breeding grounds, fishermen and seal-hunters seeking the bird 

 and salting numbers of them down for consumption at sea later. 

 The great auk laid one Q.gg, coloured and marked like that of the razor- 

 bill, and brooded it between the legs, having only one brood-spot 

 (Faber, 1826). Little else is known about its breeding habits, which 



*Ptychoramphus aleuticus, Cassin's auklet; Aethia psittacula, the paroquet a. ; A. 

 cristatella, the crested a. ; A. pusilla, the least a.; A. pygmaea, the whiskered a. We 

 follow R. W. Storer (1945) in regarding the 'rhinoceros auklet,' Cerorhinca monocerata, 

 as a puffin. 



