AUKS. 533 



to the reduction in the length of the ulna and bones of the digits, were quite 

 useless in flight ; while it was further distinguished by the beak being equal in 

 length to the head, and furnished with numerous grooves on its lower, as well 

 as on its upper mandible. In colour, the plumage of the head, neck, and back was 

 black, while the under-parts, as well as a characteristic spot in front of the eye, 

 were w r hite. 



Confined to the North Atlantic, and ranging as far north as Iceland on the 

 one side and Greenland on the other, the great auk was a migratory species, which 

 in winter wandered as far south as the Bay of Biscay and the shores of Virginia. 

 Both in Greenland and Norway it appears to have been always rare ; and its chief 

 or only breeding-places were three rocky islands near Iceland, known as the 

 Garefowl Skerries or Geirfuglasker, and Funk Island off the Newfoundland Coast. 

 By the subsidence in the spring of 1830 of one of these islets, which as being the 

 most inaccessible, was the favourite breeding-place, the birds were driven to one 

 nearer the shore, where they were more easily approached ; and in the course of 

 the next fourteen years the species became extinct in Europe, the last pair having 

 been killed in the summer of 1844. The existence of the garefowl on Funk Island 

 was discovered about 1534, when the birds were so numerous as to be reckoned, it 

 is said, by thousands; but incessant persecution for more than two centuries 

 eventually brought about its extermination, which probably took place almost 

 contemporaneously with its disappearance from Europe. On Funk Island, as Mr. 

 Lucas remarks, it was customary for the crews of several vessels to spend the 

 summer for the sole purpose of killing garefowl for the sake of their feathers. 

 Although we have but traditions of these expeditions, it is indisputable that stone 

 pens were erected into which the birds were driven like sheep, that they were 

 slain by millions, and that their bodies were left to rot where they lay, while for 

 some purpose or other frequent and long-continued fires were lighted on the island. 

 The records of this slaughter are still extant in the numbers of garefowl bones to 

 be met with in the soil of Funk Island ; such relics, together with a few skins, 

 and a number of egg-shells, being all that remain to us of the finest of the auks. 



That the garefowl was generally a gregarious bird, more especially during the 

 breeding-season, is evident from the foregoing ; but it is stated that solitary pairs 

 were occasionally found nesting with guillemots and razorbills. Although useless 

 for flight, the w r ings were admirably suited as paddles ; and the swimming and 

 diving powers of the bird were probably unrivalled, its migrations being more 

 extensive than those of many of its relatives which possess the power of flight. 

 From the accounts of the natives of Iceland, it appears that the garefowl swam 

 with its head elevated and the neck retracted, and that, when pursued, instead of 

 flapping along the water, it immediately dived. As in allied species, the eggs are 

 relatively large in proportion to the size of the bird, often measuring just over 5 

 inches in length ; and they have also the same elongated form, with one end much 

 larger than the other. They have a creamy- white ground-colour, marked with 

 black or brown streaks and blotches, with underlying grey patches. 



The common English razorbill (A. torda), which is the only other 



representative of the genus, differs from the garefowl not only by its 



greatly inferior size (length about 17 inches), but likewise by its well-developed 



