

GREAT AUK. 373 



the reef on which the birds previously bred was destroyed by an earth- 

 quake. 



During the last forty years nothing has been seen of the Great Auk, 

 but there are seventy-seven skins of the bird in various public and private 

 museums, and about seventy eggs. Many more or less complete skeletons 

 exist, and great numbers of its bones have been found in the kitchen- 

 middens of Denmark, one or two places in Scotland, Durham, and on the 

 American coast. 



Very little is recorded of the habits of the Great Auk, but its diving- 

 powers are described as being very wonderful. Bullock chased one for 

 many hours in a six- oared boat, but failed to shoot it in consequence of the 

 rapidity with which it was able to pursue its course under water. Fleming 

 also describes the ease and rapidity with which a captured bird was able to 

 swim and dive. It was said (Gurney, ' Zoologist/ 1868, p. 1450) to have 

 stood very erect and to have had a habit of frequently shaking its head 

 in a peculiar manner, more especially when any particularly favourite food 

 was presented to it. There is more than one passage implying that the 

 Great Auk was capable of being tamed, so as to follow its master for food ; 

 but it is said that it seldom lived long in confinement. It is described as 

 walking and running with its body in a nearly perpendicular position ; but 

 its rate of progress is said to have been slow, not much quicker than a man 

 can walk, so that when surprised on land it was easily caught. Wolley, 

 when making inquiries respecting the habits of the Great Auk in Iceland, 

 was told by many people that they swam with their heads much lifted up, 

 but their necks drawn in ; they never tried to flap along the surface of the 

 water when pursued, but dived immediately. 



As the Great Auk had no means of ascending perpendicular cliffs, and 

 was obliged to reach its breeding-grounds from some part of the shore 

 where the rocks sloped gently down to the sea, and naturally chose a 

 locality above the reach of storms or high tides, its eggs were generally 

 found further inland than those of the Razorbill or Guillemot. It does 

 not seem to have been difficult to approach, but is said to have been more 

 easily alarmed if any noise was made. Like most of its kind it was 

 doubtless a comparatively silent bird ; but Naumann was informed that its 

 note was loud and hoarse, somewhat resembling the syllables ahngla. 



It was more or less a gregarious bird, especially during the breeding- 

 season, but solitary pairs are said occasionally to have been found breeding 

 in the company of Razorbills and Guillemots. 



The food of the Great Auk was fish, which its unrivalled powers of diving 

 enabled it to procure with ease. It may also have fed upon other marine 

 animals which frequent the open sea or the shore. It doubtless made no 

 nest and laid only one egg, which is said to have been deposited during the 

 first half of June. As in the allied species, the egg is large in proportion 



