GREAT AUK 



2 57 



migration. On land these birds are awkward, their short legs being placed far 

 back, and the under surface of, the body almost touching the ground ; the wings, 

 which are long enough to be crossed over one another at the tail, are, however, 

 very powerful, and endow their owners with great powers of night. These birds 

 rest and sleep on the water, their slumber being so sound that they may sometimes 

 be approached so close by boats as to be captured before they awake. 



Although auks are more birds of the ocean than of the shore, 

 their breeding-places are on the coasts of the North Atlantic, and 

 they accordingly come within the purview of the present chapter. The most in- 



Great Auk. 



GREAT AUKS. 



teresting member of the group is undoubtedly the great auk (Alca, or Plautus, 

 impennis), distinguished not only by its size, but likewise by its total incapacity 

 for flight, being the only bird in the Northern Hemisphere thus handicapped. In 

 early times, especially in North America, it was termed penguin, a name afterwards 

 transferred to the well-known Antarctic birds. The head, neck, and back of the 

 great auk are black, and its under-parts white, but the glossy black head is marked 

 by a peculiar white patch between the beak and the eye. Although its wings 

 were not strong enough to support the body in the air, they formed an excellent 

 pair of paddles. Like its relatives, all of which use their wings to move beneath 

 vol. ii. — ry 



