SUPPLEMENT. 593 



noteworthy as being the expression of the lowest of its class known 

 to the North American continent, as the Penguin of the antarctic 

 regions represents the lowest of all. The Northern Penguin, as the 

 Great Auk is sometimes designated, is now so rare in collections 

 that each individual has its history and price, or, as in some in- 

 stances, is absolutely priceless. Some time not long since, a list of 

 the existing specimens owned by institutions or persons, was pub- 

 lished, which exhibited only sixty in number. No living specimen 

 has been obtained for over forty years. In 1869, the large sum of 

 $625 was paid, in London, by the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, New York, for the specimen from which our illustration is 

 taken. The length of the Great Auk is about three feet ; its wing 

 is only four inches long. It inhabited the highest latitudes, and 

 was at one time abundant in the arctic seas. The ancient shell 

 heaps that are so numerous along the Atlantic coast show abundant 

 remains of this bird, even as far south as the New England shores. 

 Nuttall, in 1834, records this bird as then breeding in great num- 

 bers. "As a diver he is unrivalled," he says, "having almost the 

 velocity of birds in the air. They breed in the Faroe Islands and in 

 Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, nesting among the cliffs, and 

 laying but one egg each. They are so unproline that if this egg be 

 destroyed, no other is laid during that season." 



It is supposed that the last of this species seen alive were at the 

 Funks, a small island off Newfoundland. In 1844, the last specimen 

 known to be alive on the Eastern Continent was seen in Iceland. In 

 1870, a specimen was found dead at Labrador. Though in poor con- 

 dition, it was sold in England for $200. 



Aptenodytes patagonica. Penguin. — This is the lowest of the 

 class of birds. Its fish-like "paddles," or rudimentary wings, close, 

 scale-like plumage, and extremely terminal feet and legs, show how 

 completely it is formed to be an exclusively aquatic creature — as 

 much so even as the seal, whose life and habits are quite similar. 

 This bird is an inhabitant of the southern hemisphere, and found in 

 the extreme antarctic regions, and is therefore not within the group 

 of birds of North America. Its exceedingly interesting nature and 

 position in the natural system, however, render it quite worthy of 

 attention here. The name of the Penguin is derived from the term 

 pen-wing orpin-wing. 



