236 Order XV 



ORDER XV. ALC-^ 



In the Auks the body is heavy and compact with 

 a rather large head, and the plumage is close and 

 elastic. The stout bill varies considerably, as will be 

 seen below, and is often compressed ; the foot is 

 short, with long and webbed front toes and no hind- 

 toe ; the wings are absurdly short, the Great Auk having 

 been quite flightless ; the tail is also very short, and 

 the birds commonly sit upright on their feet. The 

 nestlings are covered with down, which may be black, 

 grey, or brown. 



Family ALCID.^, or Auks, Guillemots and Pufllns 



The members of this Family, in which the sexes 

 are alike, are the counterparts, in Arctic and temperate 

 regions, of the Antarctic Penguins, which difEer from 

 them completely in structure. The latter, moreover, 

 are flightless, while all the Auks, except the Garefowl, 

 are able to fly. They swim and dive to perfection, and 

 Hve on fishes and crustaceans. Among British species 

 the Pufiin alone occasionally makes a nest, while only 

 the Black Guillemot lays two eggs, the others laying 

 one. The note is a croaking or grunting sound. 



Subfamily Alcinse, or Auks 

 The most striking member of the Family is that 

 quaint bird the Great Auk or Garefowl {Alca impennis), 

 extinct since 1844, when the last two specimens were 

 obtained at the island of Eldey off the south-west of 

 Iceland. It bred plentifully on Newfoundland and 

 Funk Island in America before 1819, while the last 

 of its certainly known visits to Britain were in 1813, 

 1821-2, and 1834, in Orkney, St Kilda, and Waterford 



