iSSS.J Hardy on (he Great Auk. ^^83 



Great Auk, calls it "an ill shaped Fowl, having no long feathers 

 in their Pinions, which is the reason they cannot fly, not much 

 unlike a Pengwin ; tkey are in Spring very fat, or rather oyly, 

 but pull'd and garbidg'd, and laid to the fire to roast, they 

 yield not one drop." 



More evidence might easily be collected from the narrations 

 of these early travellers, but in dealing with them care has to be 

 exercised to see that they are not quoting some earlier traveller 

 without giving him the credit due him. 



As to the Great Auk breeding on the New England coast, the 

 statement of Josselyn ali'eady quoted, that they were taken at 

 Black Point (which was near Portland, Maine) in the spring, 

 is an indirect testimony, the stronger for being undesigned. 

 Again in Archer's 'Account of Gosnold's Voyage to Cape 

 Cod' made in the spring and summer of 1602, he mentions 

 ''seeing petrels, coot%,\\^^\.\i?>, penguins, mews, gannets, cor- 

 morants, gulls," etc. These birds were seen in the months of 

 May and June in the region of Cape Cod ; hence it is reasonable 

 to suppose that the Penguin, or Great Auk, was breeding there 

 at that time. Again, Brereton in his 'Account of the Voyage of 

 Gosnold to Virginia' speaks of the birds of the country, among 

 which he mentions "eagles ; hernshaws ; cranes; bitterns ; mal- 

 lai'ds ; teals; geese; penguins; osprays and hawks; crows; 

 ravens ; mews ; doves ; sea-pies," etc. Gosnold arrived in Vir- 

 ginia, April 26, 1607, and Biereton's account was published the 

 following year, so that these "penguins" may have been seen 

 during the winter, though it is fully as probable that the list was 

 made soon after their arrival in the country. Throwing this out as 

 doubtful, at least two good references have been given to show 

 that the Great Auk was present on our coasts during the summer. 

 If they were there at that time, what could they have been there 

 for unless to breed .? 



In his article in 'The Auk,' Mr. Lucas says : "As for the bones 

 found in shell-heaps, they are probably those of birds taken 

 during their migrations southward, for the Great Auk was doubt- 

 less formerly as common on the New England coast during the 

 autumn and winter months as the Razor-bill is now." This cer- 

 tainly is a fair conjecture, and may be the correct one yet ; con- 

 sidering the references already given which show that the Great 

 Auk was, for a period of seventy years at least, a summer resi- 



