THE GREAT AUK. 301 



It never ventures far from the sea ; and it has not the 

 means of doing so, as it is altogether incapable of flight, and 

 by no means good at walking. 



Its size is about equal to that of a goose ; but its wings 

 barely exceed four inches in length, each are without pro- 

 duced feathers, and are swimming flaps rather than wings. 

 They, as well as their feet, the tarsi of which are very short, 

 are placed farther back than those of any other bird which 

 is found even occasionally in the British seas. It cannot 

 stand or walk, except on the entire lengths of the tarsi, and 

 thus it shuffles along, rather than walks, in an erect position, 

 and balancing itself by its flaps. 



Its bill is entirely black, of large dimensions, with seven 

 ridges in the upper mandible, and eleven in the lower. The 

 culmen of the upper mandible is considerably arched, and so 

 also is the gape ; the under mandible has its outline formed 

 of two concave curves with an angle between, rather nearer 

 the tip than the naked part of the base. The length of the 

 gape is about four inches and a half, and the depth of the 

 bill more than an inch and a half. The irides are chestnut ; 

 the feet, claws, and margins of the eyes, black. In the 

 summer plumage, the head (except a large oval spot of white 

 in front of the eye), the nape, the back, and "upper parts 

 generally, are black ; the chin, throat, and sides of the neck, 

 blackish brown, the rest of the under parts white, the quills 

 (such as they are) are dusky, the tips of the secondaries 

 white, forming an oblique band. In winter, the brownish 

 black on the throat and neck fades to white ; the young are 

 said to have that part mottled. 



The great auk, like most of the analogous birds, lays but 

 one egg ; but that is a very large one, being six inches in 

 length, or twice the length, and consequently eight times the 

 volume, of that of the razor-bill. It is deposited in holes not 

 very high above the tide, as, though the bird can climb, the 



