178 A NATURE WOOING. 



the lower portion of the mound, and were integral 

 parts of the shell layers which surrounded them, 

 there is no other conclusion but that they are 

 the bones of birds which served as a part of 

 the food of the aborigines who formed the mound* 

 There may be numerous other remains of the auk 

 scattered throughout the mound, as only a very small 

 portion of it has been examined. Moreover, many 

 bones of the bird may have been hauled out to the 

 sidewalks of Ormond in the past, as the material is 

 used for those walks just as it occurs in the mound, 

 without screening or other process of separating the 

 shells from the other debris. 



Dr. Hay has recently published an account of the 

 finding of the two bones in the Ormond mound.* 

 After stating the facts relative to their discovery, and 

 those concerning the former known distribution of 

 the bird, he adds: "That the Great Auk was a per- 

 manent resident in Florida is very doubtful. We can 

 hardly argue with respect to the shell heaps of Flor- 

 ida, as Hardy has maintained in the case of the ISTew 

 England heaps, that they were built up during the 

 summer, and that hence the bones are those of auks 

 which were captured at that season. On the other 

 hand, Ormond is a thousand miles distant in a 

 straight line from Cape Cod, and eighteen hundred 

 from Newfoundland; and either of these distances 

 would be a long trip for a wingless bird to make and 



* The Auk, July, 1902, p. 255. 



