THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 



northern Pacific and Bering Sea. They were killed 

 for food by Indians, whalers, and others who vis- 

 ited the regions where the birds spend the summer. 

 The Great Cormorant has been extinct in those waters 

 since the year 1 850. 



Great Auks were once numbered literally by mil- 

 lions in the North Atlantic. They were flightless 

 and exceedingly fat. They were easily killed with 

 clubs on the breeding rookeries, and provided an 

 acceptable meat supply for fishermen and other 

 toilers of the sea; also their feathers were sought. 

 They were very common off Labrador and New- 

 foundland. Funk Island, especially, contained an 

 enormous breeding colony. 



For years fishermen going to the Banks in early 

 summer depended on Auks for their meat supply. 

 The birds probably bred as far south as Massachu- 

 setts, where it is known a great many were killed by 

 Indians during certain seasons of the year. How- 

 ever, it was the white man who brought ruin to this 

 magnificent sea-fowl, for the savage Indians were 

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