ALCIDyE — THE AUKS — PLAUTUS. 471 



bill, and entirely refusing food. When in Labrador, Audubon was informed that this 

 Auk was then living on rocky islands off the southeastern end of Newfoundland ; but 

 he was not able to obtain further confirmatory evidence on this point. But as a few 

 of these birds are known to have been alive at the time this statement was made, 

 it may have been true, as we have no data as to the exact time of the disappearance 

 of this bird from American waters. 



This Auk is said to have been an unrivalled swimmer and diver. One that was 

 pursued by Mr. Bullock, among the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland, near Papa 

 Westra, distanced a six-oared boat. Buffon mentions, in regard to this bird, that it 

 was rarely if ever seen out of soundings, and that its presence was regarded as an 

 infallible indication of the near presence of land. 



Dr. Fleming refers to a bird of this species as having been obtained at St. Kilda — 

 one of the Outer Hebrides — in the winter of 1822 ; another was taken alive there in 

 1829, but managed to escape from its captors. Mr. Macgillivray visited these islands 

 in 1840, and was informed by the inhabitants that the Great Auk was of not infre- 

 quent occurrence about St. Kilda ; but that it had not been known to breed there for 

 many years back. A specimen of this bird was picked up dead near Lundy Island, 

 off the coast of Devonshire, in 1829. In 1834 one was taken off the coast of Water- 

 ford, Ireland, and is now in the collection of Trinity College, Dublin. This is the 

 last specimen known to have been obtained in British waters ; that referred to by 

 Mr. Edwards having been captured at sea, over a fishing-bank, about three hundred 

 miles from Newfoundland. 



There is more or less disagreement in regard to some of the habits of this bird. 

 Yarrell states that it was rarely seen out of water ; but if this had been true, how it 

 came to be exterminated would be hard to explain. That "the female lays her single 

 large egg close above sea-tide mark " is not confirmed by information obtained by 

 Professor Newton, according to Avhich this bird appeared to have nested farther from 

 the water than do most of its class of divers. Most writers agree that it laid but 

 a single egg, and that when attacked it made no resistance, \xnless taken in the hand ; 

 but Yarrell states that in 1829 a pair — male and female — were killed on the Geir- 

 fugle-Skjoer whilst courageously defending their two eggs. 



In a work descriptive of "Newfoundland and its Missionaries," printed in Halifax 

 by Dakin & Metcalf, and published by the Wesleyan Book-room in 1866, the follow- 

 ing reference is made to the Great Auk : " Half a century ago the Penguin was very 

 plenty. It is a handsome bird, about the size of a Goose, with a coal-black head and 

 back, a white belly, and a milk-white spot under the right eye. They cannot fly well, 

 their wings are more like fins. They have on their bodies short feathers and down. 

 The Penguin is now but seldom seen ; such destruction of the bird was made for the 

 sake of its feathers, that it is now all but extinct " (p. 64). 



Mr. George A. Boardman having seen the above paragraph, and meeting its author, 

 questioned him more particularly about the Penguin, and obtained a few further 

 details. At the time of his residence in Newfoundland he was a ]\Iethodist mission- 

 ary stationed on the coast, not far from the Funk or Fogo Island, between the years 

 1818 and 1823. He saw the Penguins during the whole of his stay in the island in 

 considerable number, and frequently lectured the inhabitants for their cruelty in 

 destroying them merely for their feathers. It was quite common for the boys 

 to keep them tied by the leg as pets. 



In a work on " New England Rarities," by John Josselvn, Gent., London, 1672, 

 occurs the following reference to the Auk : " Tlie Wobble is an ill shaped Fowl, 

 having no long Feathers in thoir Pinions, which is the reason they cannot fly, not 



