AUKS. 217 



object of attraction to those who get their living by 

 supplying the dealers with this and other objects of 

 natural history ; and its disposition is so gentle and 

 docile, that it readily accommodates itself to captivity." 

 The bird is now, as far as is known, extinct, and I 

 have reason to believe that the last specimen perished 

 even before these sentences were printed. 



Still more extraordinary is the disappearance of 

 the Great Auk. Both the previously mentioned birds 

 were essentially local, the dodo inhabiting the 

 Mauritius and neighbouring isles, and the Philip 

 Island parrot being confined to the spot whence it 

 takes its name a mere islet only some five miles in 

 extent. Then the former bird was eminently sluggish, 

 and the latter neither very active nor wary. 



But in the case of the Great Auk, the case is widely 

 different. It had a very wide range in Northern 

 regions, and was found io Labrador, Norway, Iceland, 

 Greenland, Spitzbergen, and even on the northern 

 coast of Scotland. Moreover, it was a singularly 

 active bird, scarcely less swift and agile than the 

 penguin, which it much resembled in general form. 

 Like that bird, it did not possess wings suitable for 

 flight, those members being reduced to a very small 

 size, and only useful as fins in the water. The feathers 

 are longer than those of the penguin, but the wing is 

 absolutely useless for aerial progress in both birds. 



The specific name, " impennis," or wingless, al- 

 ludes to the very small size of the wing, though it is 

 not a really correct term. 



Yet, in spite of its wide range and its extreme 

 activity in the water, it became extinct with a rapidity 



