ALCID.E — THE AUKS — PLAUTUS. 



467 



Flautus impennis. 



THE GREAT AUK. 



Aha impennis, Link. S. N. ed. 10, 1758, 130, no. 2 ; ed. 12, I. 1766, 210, no. 2. — Aub. Orn. Biog. 



IV. 1838, 316; B. Am. pi. 311 ; oct. ed. VII. pi. 46:,. —('ass. in Band's B. X. Am. 1S5S, 900. 



— Baikd, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 710. — Cones, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1S68, 14; Key, 



1872, 339 ; Check List, 1873, no. 615 ; ed. 2, 1882, no. S78. — Ridgw. Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, 



no. 741. 

 Plaatus impennis, Steenstp.. Vkl. Med. Nat. For. Kjob. 1855, 114. 

 Alca borcalis, FoRST. Synop. Cat. Brit. B. 1S17, 29. 



Hab. Believed to be now extinct. Formerly (previous to 1844) inhabited the islands of the 

 North Atlantic, south to the coasl of New England (Nahant and islands in Boston Bay); probably 

 did not occur north of the Arctic circle (Wolley). 



/'. impennis, summer adult. 



Sp. Char. Adult, in summer: Head, neck, and upper parts, blackish, the throat and sides of 

 the head and neck inclining to a clear snuff-brown shade ; lower parts, a large oval space covering 

 the greater part of the loral region, and the tips of the secondaries, white ; the white of the jugulum 

 extending upward in a point into the snuff-brown of the middle portion of the throat. "Bill 

 black, with the grooves between the transverse ridges white ; iris hazel ; feet and claws black" 

 (Audubon). 



