LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 911 
The fundamental cause of the extinction of the great auk was the 
systematic onslaught made for various reasons by so-called civilized 
man. Breeding on remote islands, the bird had little to fear from 
savages and other mammalian enemies. Although it could not fy, 
it could easily take care of itself in the water. 
By most of the men of those days when the great auk flourished the 
idea of its extinction would have been flouted, and, even if they - 
could have realized it, they would not have viewed the death of a 
species in the same manner as do the more enlightened of the human 
race at the present day. Richard Whitbourne (1622) wrote: 
God made the innocencie of so poor a creature to become such an admirable 
instrument for the sustentation of man. 
The reasons for the slaughter of this bird were primarily for food, 
later for bait, for its fat and its feathers, and last of all, when it 
was doomed to extinction, the finishing blow was put by collectors. 
Sir Richard Bonnycastle in his “ Newfoundland in 1842” says: 
In winter many of the arctic ice birds frequent the coast, but the large auk 
or penguin (Alca impennis), which, not 50 years ago, was a sure sea mark 
in the edge of and inside the banks, has totally disappeared, from the ruthless 
trade in the eggs and skin. 
Cartwright (1792) in his journal under date of July 5, 1785, 
prophesies the speedy extermination of the great auk. He says: 
A boat came in from Funk Island laden with birds, chiefly penguins. Funk 
Island is a small flat island rock about 20 leagues east of the island of Fogo, 
in the latitude of 50° north. Innumerable flocks of sea fowl breed upon it 
every summer, which are of great service to the poor inhabitants of Fogo, 
who make voyages there to load with birds and eggs. When the water is 
smooth. they make their shallop fast to the shore, lay their gangboards from 
the gunwale of the boat to the rocks, and then drive as many penguins on 
board as she will hold; for, the wings of those birds being remarkably short, 
they can not fly, but it has been customary of late years for several crews of 
men to live all summer on that island for the sole purpose of killing birds for 
the sake of their feathers; the destruction which they have made is incredible. 
If a stop is not soon put to that practice, the whole breed will be diminished 
to almost nothing, particularly the penguins; for this is now the only island 
they have left to breed upon; all others lying so near to the shores of New- 
foundland, they are continually robbed. The birds which the people bring 
from thence they salt and eat, in lieu of salted pork. 
The following note by J. A. Allen (1876) describes more in detail 
the horrible slaughter for the feathers: 
Mr. Michael Carrol, of Bonavista, Newfoundland, has recently given me the 
following very interesting facts respecting the extermination of the great auk 
(Alca impennis) at the Funk Islands. In early life he was often a visitor to 
these islands, and a witness of what he here describes. He says these birds 
were formerly very numerous on the Funk Islands, and 45 to 50 years ago were 
hunted for their feathers, soon after which time they were wholly exterminated. 
As the auks could not fly, the fishermen would surround them in small boats 
and drive them ashore into pounds previously constructed of stones. The birds 
55916—19— Bull. 107——15 
