DOVEKIE 215 



on his passage from New York to England, hooked a great auk on the banks of 

 Newfoundland, in extremely boisterous weather. On being hauled on board, 

 it was left at liberty on the deck. It walked very awkwardly, often tumbling 

 over, bit everyone within reach of its powerful bill, and refused food of all 

 kinds. After continuing several days on board, it was restored to its proper 

 element. 



Of the voice of this extinct bird we have but scanty record. Some 

 of the older writers speak of a croak. Dr. Fleming, as quoted by 

 Grieve (188 5), said: 



When fed in confinement it holds up its head, expressing its anxiety by 

 shaking its head and neck and uttering a gurgling noise. 



Grieve (1885) listed 79 or 81 skins of the great auk, 2 or 3 physio- 

 logical preparations, 10 skeletons, 121 or 131 birds represented by 

 detached bones and 68 or 70 eggs still in existence. The numbers of 

 these have slightly increased, especially in the list of detached bones, 

 which would bring the number of individuals up to many thousands. 

 The value of the skins and of the eggs has increased many fold and 

 has reached fabulous sums. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Formerly coasts and islands of the North Atlan- 

 tic. The best-known breeding place was Funk Island, Newfound- 

 land. It also bred on the Faroes and on islands off the southwest 

 coast of Iceland, where the last pair of birds were taken alive in 

 June, 1844. Although recorded from Greenland (Disco Island), it 

 is now considered doubtful if the species bred north of the Arctic 

 Circle. A cast was found in a loam deposit in southern Sweden that 

 agrees with the egg of this species and this probably marks the east- 

 ern limit of its range. 



Winter range. Probably south along the coast from Newfound- 

 land and Cape Breton to Maine and Massachusetts, casually to South 

 Carolina and Florida; and from Denmark to France and northern 

 Spain. One was found dead in Norway in the winter of 1838. 



A lie alle (Linnaeus) 

 DOVEKIE 



HABITS 



Although not so strictly confined to the Arctic Ocean in winter as 

 Ross's gull there is no more characteristic bird of the Arctic regions 

 than the "little auk," which swarms as abundantly, on the Atlantic 

 side of this continent, as the various auklets do in Bering Sea. It 

 winters much farther south than the little auklets, but it returns to 

 its summer home at remarkably early dates, as soon as it can push 

 northward into the forbidden regions of ice and snow, a hardy little 



