272 WEAK-WINGED DIVING BIRDS 



and slaughtered there, or else the pens were used to contain 

 their dead bodies. Apparently great numbers of the bodies 

 were burned for fuel. About 1844 the species became en- 

 tirely extinct. 



When Funk Island was visited by Dr. F. A. Lucas in 1887, 

 in quest of Auk remains, he found deposits of bones several 

 feet in thickness, evidently where the bodies of slaughtered 

 birds had been heaped up and left to decay. Out of these 

 deposits several barrels of mixed bones and peaty earth were 

 taken which yielded several complete skeletons of that species. 



Had the Great Auk possessed wings for flight, the chances 

 are that it would not have fallen such easy prey to its exter- 

 minators. The moral lesson of its fate is — in these days of 

 firearms and limitless ammunition — no bird should be hatched 

 without steel-plate armor, strong wings for flight and swift 

 legs for running away. 



