GKEAT AUK 477 



Food. The Great Auk appears to have subsisted almost 

 entirely on fish, which were swiftly pursued and captured 

 under water. 



Voice. The voice has been described as a low croak. 



Nest. When about to breed, large numbers of these 

 birds assembled on marine islands, where each deposited 

 and hatched its single egg on a ledge close to the sea-mark. 

 In colour the egg is rather impure white, streaked, blotched, 

 and sometimes scrolled with brown, shading to purplish- 

 black at the larger end (Plate LIII.) : in some of the eggs 

 a green tinge is manifest. Judging from the quantities of 

 remains which have been discovered, it is probable that 

 this species formerly bred in considerable numbers in the 

 British Islands, but the evidence which has been furnished 

 to show that it survived as a breeding-species until early 

 in the nineteenth century, has been refuted by competent 

 authorities. 



Geographical Distribution. Abroad, the Great Auk bred 

 in the northern limits of Temperate as well as in Sub-arctic 

 climes. In Europe its breeding-haunts were along the 

 shores and small islands surrounding Iceland, also on the 

 Faroes, the Norwegian and Scandinavian coasts. In the 

 Western Hemisphere it was once plentiful in Greenland, 

 and more especially on Funk Island off Newfoundland. It 

 also bred on the coasts of Labrador. 



In autumn and winter, it inhabited the North Atlantic 

 Ocean " and was recorded by Catesby from the waters of 

 Carolina in winter " (Saunders). 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Top of head, hind-neck, 

 back, scapulars, upper wing- and tail-coverts, glossy-black ; 

 sides of head, chin, and throat, brownish-black ; primaries 

 and tail (of 14 feathers), dull black ; secondaries, brownish- 

 black, edged with white forming an alar bar ; middle of fore- 

 neck, breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, white; large 

 white patch in front of the eye. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar in plumage to the male. 



Adult winter, male and female. Chin, throat, and sides 

 of the head, white, otherwise similar to the nuptial plumage. 



Immature, male and female. Resembles the adult winter- 

 plumage. 



BEAK. Black ; rather deep, greatly compressed, with 



