ALGIB^ — ALCINIE: GREAT AUK. 



819 



878. 



tarsus 1.25 ; middle or outer toe and claw 2.00, inner 1.40 ; chord of culmen 1..30, arc 1..50 ■ 

 gape 2.25; gonys 0.75; greatest depth of bill 0.90. This auk abounds iu tlie N. Atlantic, 

 both coasts, and parts of the Polar seas; casual iu the N. Pacific; Japan. On our coast, 

 breeds in great numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, about Newfoundland and Labrador 

 strays S. in winter to the 

 Middle States, like other 

 Alcida. The eggs are 

 usually laid in caverns 

 and fissures of the rocks 

 along precipitous shore- 

 lines, often with those of 

 sea-pigeons and puffins ; 

 about 3.00 X scant 2.00, 

 white with creamy or 

 milky-bluish tint, never 

 green like those of murres, 

 spotted and blotched, but 

 not fantastically traced 

 ' 1 ver, with different shades 

 of umber - bro^vu ; less 

 pointed ; laid in June and 

 July. 



AL'CA. (Lat. from aljc 

 or ai(k.) His Grace, 

 The Auk, who lost the 

 use tif his wings, and per- 

 ished off the face of the 

 earth in consequence. 

 A. Impen'nis. (Lat. 

 inijinmis, wingless. Fig. 

 561.) The Great Auk. 

 Largest of the family : 

 length about 30.00 inches; 

 wing 6.00; taU 3.00; bill 

 along gape 4.25; chord Fig. 560. —Murres. 



of culmen 3.15; greatest depth of upper mandible 1.00, of lower 0.67; greatest width of biU 

 0.67; tarsus 1.67; middle toe and claw 3.23; outer do. 3.00; inner do. 2.25. A great white 

 oval spot between eye and biU. Hood and mantle dark ; under parts white, extending in a 

 point on the throat; ends of secondaries white. Bill black, with white grooves; feet dark 

 Special interest attaches to this bird, which is now doubtless extinct, largely through human 

 agency. It formerly inhabited this coast from Massachusetts northward, as attested by earlier 

 observers, and by the plentiful occurrence of its bones in shell-heaps; also Greenland, Iceland, 

 and the N. W. shores of Europe, to the Arctic Circle. On our shores it was apparently last 

 ahve at the Funks, a small island off the S. Coast of Newfoundland; while in Iceland, its 

 living history has been brought down to 1844. For stjme years, it was currently, but prema- 

 turely, reported extinct. Mr. E. Deane has recently recorded (Am. Nat. vi, 368) that a speci- 

 men was "found dead in the vicinity of St. Augustine, Labrador, in November, 1870;" this 

 cue, though in poor condition, being sold for S200, and sent to Europe. But there appears to 

 be some question respecting the character, date, and disposition of this alleged indi^-idual ; and 

 it seems very improbable that the species lived down to 1870. I know of <mly four speci- 



