238 On the trail of vanishing birds 



are taken in sufficient time, our efforts, while taking into full ac- 

 count the biological and ecological situation, will often accomplish 

 immediate and remarkable results through such fields as legisla- 

 tion, enforcement, education, and public relations. The story of 

 the American egret is a classic example. The egret has been re- 

 turned to abundance mainly as a result of legal protection, enforce- 

 ment, and education, although we remain almost completely ig- 

 norant of its ecological and behavior patterns and genetic char- 

 acters. In this instance we were very lucky, but we should not be 

 misled into thinking that we will have such luck every time. 



The story behind the extinction of a species already lost can be 

 of value to us. Even the story of the great auk, gone now these 112 

 years, is a useful one, if only to emphasize the importance of 

 present-day safeguards and restrictions that we may take somewhat 

 for granted. 



The great auk (Plautus impennis) once inhabited coasts and 

 islands of the North Atlantic from Newfoundland, Iceland, and 

 perhaps southern Greenland, south to Massachusetts and Ireland, 

 and in winter as far as South Carolina, Florida, and the Bay of 

 Biscay. It became extinct under dramatically tragic circumstances 

 that demonstrate how suddenly an extinction of this sort can be 

 finally accomplished. As in the case of the last passenger pigeon, 

 almost the exact hour of its final demise is known. A powerful 

 swimmer and diver, it was a large bird averaging thirty inches in 

 total length, its plumage black above and white underneath. Once 

 ashore, as on a nesting ledge, it was awkward and easily captured, 

 for the garefowl, as it was called, was a flightless bird. As men 

 roved across the Northern seas they found and destroyed colony 

 after colony, taking the birds for food, both for their vessels and 

 for their settlements ashore. Adventurous French fishermen were 

 said to have reached the Newfoundland Banks as early as 1497, 

 and on nearby islands they raided colonies of the garefowl. 

 Carrier, on his first voyage in 1534, salted down five or six barrels 

 of their carcasses for every one of his ships. These raids were con- 

 tinued until, somewhere between 1830 and 1840, the great auk 

 was extinct in North America. 



A few survived off the coast of Europe, however. At about the 



