4i6 AUKS. 



other marine animals. As the night approaches they seek the 

 shore, where, under the ledges of the rocks, or in burrows dug 

 with their bill and feet, they retire to rest ; and it is in such 

 places that the female deposits her single egg. 

 The type of this sub-family is — 



The Knotty-billed Staraki {Phakris nodirosiris). 



The starakis are evidently closely related to the aiiks proper and to the 

 jniffins, described in the last chapter, a race of birds .which, however much at 

 home they may find themselves in their proper element, the water, are exceed- 

 ingly clumsy and awkward in their movements upon dry land ; their principal 

 safeguard, indeed, is that they are mhabitants of inaccessible cliffs and barren 

 rocks, or even of icebergs, far removed from the persecutions of mankind, be- 

 fore whose relentless propensities to slaughter every animal either curious in 

 its formation or valuable from its scarcity, one at least of the most remarkable 

 species has within a very few years apparently become as completely extinct 

 as the dodo or the moa — 



The Great Auk {Aka iinpeiinis), the species to which we allude, in size 

 nearly equalled a goose, but its wings barely exceeded four inches in length, 

 and the quills were so rudimentary that they might be compared to swim- 

 ming paddles rather than to organs of flight. These abortive wings, as well 

 as their feet, the tarsi of which were very short, were placed farther back than 

 those of any other bird which is found even occasionally in the British seas, 

 so that it was unable to stand or walk except on the entire length of the tarsi, 

 and thus had to shuffle along rather than walk, in an erect position, balancing 

 itself with its little llaps of wings. Like others of the family, it laid but a 

 single egg ; but that was a very large one, being six inches in length. This 

 enormous egg was deposited in a hole not very high above the tide, as, although 

 the great auk could climb, the operation was evidently laborious. A bird so 

 organized had no chance against guns and gunpowder. 



Sub- Family III. 



THE TENGUINS. SrHENISCIN/E.* 



General Characteristics.— Bill more or less long and straight, with the sides 

 compressed and grooved, the culmen rounded and curved at the tip, which is acute ; 

 the nostrils placed in the lateral groove, and linear; the wings short, imperfect, 

 being only covered with scale-like plumes; the tail more or less short, and com- 

 posed of narrow rigid feathers; the tarsi very short and depressed ; the toes mode- 

 rate and depressed, with the anterior toes united by a web, the hind toe very small 

 and united to the side of the tarsus. 



These birds are found on the rocky islands of the Southern 

 Ocean and the southern portions of South America and Africa ; 

 they are also frequently observed on the floating masses of ice 



« c(p-r]v, sphen, a wedge : so called from the shape of their bodies. 



