GREAT AUK 209 



with eternal ice. Here it is commonly found upon the floating masses of the 

 gelid ocean, far from land, to which alone it resorts in the season of pro- 

 creation. 



This is far from being the case, for it is doubtful whether the great 

 auk ever extended its range north of the Arctic Circle and its remains 

 have been found in shell heaps as far south as the Bay of Biscay on 

 the eastern side of the Atlantic and Florida on the western side. The 

 only record of this bird north of the Arctic Circle, namely, at Disco, 

 in Greenland, is considered by Newton of very doubtful value. 



The positively known breeding places of the great auk are quickly 

 enumerated. The chief of these on the American side of the Atlantic 

 was Funk Island, a rocky island 32 miles off Fogo on the northeastern 

 side of Newfoundland. It is possible that the bird also bred at Pen- 

 guin Islands on the south coast, and Penguin Islands near Cape Freel. 

 The latter islands were visited in 1887 by Lucas (1887), but he found 

 no evidence of such former occupation. He says: 



There can be little doubt that the extent of the breeding range of the great 

 auk has been, as a rule, much overestimated, and the writer's own belief is that, 

 like the gannet, the garefowl was confined to a very few localities. 



The Bird Rocks in the Bay of St. Lawrence, Cape Breton, and the 

 Virgin Rocks, southeast of Newfoundland, are all more or less doubt- 

 ful former breeding sites. The records of its occurrence in Greenland 

 are very few and all doubtful. Capt. George Cartwright, that acute 

 observer and recorder, who frequented the Labrador coast from 1770 

 to 1786, was familiar with the bird and has written a classic account 

 of its status on Funk Island, but never mentions any breeding place 

 on the Labrador coast. I believe that he would have described it if 

 any such existed to the south of Hamilton Inlet. 



The fact that Gosnold found great auks at Cape Cod in the spring 

 and summer of 1602, and that Joselyn says one was taken at Black 

 Point, near Portland, Maine, in the spring, has been used as an argu- 

 ment in favor of former breeding places at Cape Cod and elsewhere 

 along the New England coast. Hardy says that the shell heaps along 

 this coast were made almost entirely in summer, and, as these con- 

 tained great auk remains, therefore this bird probably bred at Cape 

 Cod and elsewhere. The conclusion, however, is not warranted, for 

 there are many species of sea birds at the present day that summer far 

 south of their breeding grounds, owing either to sterility or imma- 

 turity. Also many sea birds that breed in the north tarry along the 

 coast until June and are back again in July. 



Catesby (1771) gives a list of "European water fowls which I have 

 observed to be also inhabitants of America, which, though they abide 

 the winter in Carolina, most of them return north in the spring to 

 breed." In this list "penguin" is included. As has been already 

 stated, bones of the great auk have occurred in shell heaps as far 



