48 



flight was impossible. Though as well able to live at sea as any fish 

 or marine animal, land was as necessary to it for reproduction as to any 

 other bird. Even then, if it had inhabited the very extremes of the Arctic 

 regions for nesting purposes it would probably have survived; but lonely 

 outlying rocks and islets about the British Isles and, on our side of the 

 ocean, south to Newfoundland, were its nesting places and immediately 

 in the course of the fleets of hardy fishermen who early in our history 

 flocked to our shores. To them, these then countless thousands of large 

 sea-birds inhabiting islets in the immediate vicinity of their fishing-grounds, 

 so helpless on land that they could be killed in unlimited numbers with 

 sticks and clubs, were irresistible. They took full advantage of their 

 opportunities and the story passes current that to save labour, gang planks 

 were placed ashore from the boats and the unresisting birds were driven 

 aboard in droves to be clubbed to death on deck. Of course no numbers 

 could long resist such destruction and today the Great Auk is but an 

 interesting memory represented by only individual specimens and frag- 

 ments in a few favoured museums. 



Subfamily — AUlnae. Dovekles. 

 Genus — Alle. Dovekie. 



34. Dovekie. sea dove. fr. — ue mergttub nain. Alle (die. L, 8. The Dovekie 

 is a diminutive Diver, the smallest of its family in eastern Canada. When in our waters 

 it is generally black above and white on throat, cheek, and below. 



Distinctions. Its size is enough to separate it from any other Diver in eastern Canada. 



Field Marks. Size and extremely rapid wing beats make the best field marks. 



Nesting. On cliff ledges in the far north. 



Distribution. In summer in the far north in the eastern Arctic, in winter along the sea 

 coasts. 



On our coastal shores and harbours this little bird should be looked 

 for only in the winter. It flies with a very rapid wing motion. 



Order — Longipennes. Long-winged Swimmers. 



General Description. The Long-winged Swimmers are sea-birds, with four toes and 

 two webs, and with the wings longer than the tail if the excessively lengthened middle tail 

 feather of some Jaegers and the equally elongated outer swallow tails of some Terns are 

 disregarded. 



Distinctions. Can be recognized as an Order by their long wings and bill characters 

 (Figures 3, 4, 5, p. 18, and are separated from the Tube-nosed Swimmers by the position 

 of the nostrils which are in the sides of the bill and not in a tube on top (See Figure 11, p. 

 19, for comparison). 



Field Marks. No field marks can be given covering the order except length of wing 

 and mode of flight. 



Nesting. Usually breed on the ground or on cliff ledges, but there is little uniformity 

 in their nesting habits. 



Distribution. Some species are more or less common over all the waterways of Canada. 



The Long-winged Swimmers are wonderful fliers, being both tireless 

 and agile on the wing. In habit they are fishers, scavengers, or pirates. 

 There are only two families of the order in Canada; the Jaegers and the 

 Gulls, the latter including the closely allied Terns or " Sea Swallows ". 



Economic Status. Being sea-birds, the damage they do is slight and 

 some of them are actively beneficial to man. 



