698 GREAT AUK. 
to the St. Kilda group, has collected strong evidence that about 
1840 a bird was secured on the grassy slopes of Stack-an-Armin, 
and was killed three days afterwards as a witch, in consequence 
of a storm which frightened its captors. Remains have been found 
in Caithness, Argyllshire, some- old sea-caves in Durham, and 
latterly in several districts of Ireland, especially near Waterford ; 
also, abundantly, in Denmark. 
Nowhere was the Great Auk so abundant as round Newfound- 
land, and particularly on Funk Island, where numerous bones 
and even natural mummies have been found, as well as the remains 
of the rude stone enclosures or ‘ pounds’ into which—between the 
sixteenth and eighteenth centuries—the birds used to be driven by 
French and other fishermen, who afterwards salted them down for 
food. The “Penguin” or “ Pin-wing,” as it was called, also 
frequented the coast of Labrador, and was recorded by Catesby from 
the waters of Carolina in winter. Passing northwards, there is no 
proof that the Great Auk has been obtained within the Arctic 
circle ; or even above 65° 20’, on some islands near the east coast 
of Greenland, now blocked by drift ice. Off the south-west of 
Iceland, which has furnished the majority of the skins and eggs 
existing in collections, there were three skerries on which it appears 
to have bred; one of these—the Geirfugla-sker, near Reykjanes— 
disappeared during a submarine eruption in 1830, after the colony 
on it had been nearly extirpated; Eldey or the Meal-sack was 
systematically robbed until the last two birds were taken alive in 
June 1844; and there can now be no hope that a remnant may 
exist on the surf-encircled Geirfugla-drangr. A graphic description 
by Professor Newton, of his researches and those of Wolley in 
Iceland, is to be found in ‘ The Ibis’ for 1861, pp. 374-399. 
The eggs resemble those of the Razorbill in general coloration, 
but some of them exhibit a distinctly green tinge, as well as an 
approach to the scrolling often observable in those of the Guillemot: 
measurements 4’9 by 2°7 in. About seventy-two of these, and 
seventy-nine skins or mounted birds, appear to be in existence. 
The food is said to have consisted chiefly of fish; and the bird’s 
powers of swimming and diving have been described as remarkable. 
The note was a low croak. 
As shown by the engraving, the bird in summer-plumage is chiefly 
black above and white below ; Fleming’s description shows that after 
the autumn moult the throat and fore-neck became white. Length 
32 in.; the longest feather of the wing only 4°25 in. The incapacity 
for flight was, of course, the main cause of the bird’s extermination. 
