132 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



An old bird, killed in September, weighed 24-5 ounces. 



The young bird is covered with long brownish-black down, except on the 

 lower breast and belly, where it is dirty white. Before it is full feathered it has 

 the throat and neck blackish, and resembles the parents in summer to some 

 extent; but white feathers replace the dark ones at the end of summer, when 

 the young bird is full grown. 



Family A L CIDsE. 



GREAT AUK. 



Alca impennis, LlNN. 



THE Great Auk, or Garefowl, which formerly inhabited certain portions of 

 the Atlantic coasts and islands of the northern hemisphere, is now, there 

 seems to be no reason to doubt, entirely extinct. 



The Great Auk has an extensive literature of its own, and the following 

 slight sketch of its history has been compiled chiefly from the writings of Professor 

 A. Newton, and from Mr. Symington Grieve's monograph of the Great Auk, and 

 the subsequent papers which he has published, with a view to bringing together 

 all the more recent available information relating to this extinct bird. 



The common idea that the Great Auk was an Arctic species is a mistaken 

 one. As pointed out by Professor Newton, this bird did not possess a very high 

 northern range. There are, indeed, few records of the occurrence of the Garefowl 

 within the Arctic Circle, and these are open to doubt. 



The Great Auk, so far as has been ascertained, seems to have had building 

 stations in the following localities : St. Kilda, Orkney, possibly Shetland, the 

 Faeroes, the three Garefowl rocks off the coast of Iceland (each known as a 

 Geirfuglasker, or Garefowl skerry), Danells, or Graahs Islands (also known as 



