LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 215 
on his passage from New York to England, hooked a great auk on the banks of 
Newfoundland, in extremely boisterous weather. On being hauled on board, 
it was left at liberty on the deck. It walked very awkwardly, often tumbling 
over, bit everyone within reach of its powerful bill, and refused food of all 
kinds. After continuing several days on board, it was restored to its proper 
element. 
Of the voice of this extinct bird we have but scanty record. Some 
of the older writers speak of a croak. Dr. Fleming, as quoted by 
Grieve (1885), said: 
When fed in confinement it holds up its head, expressing its anxiety by 
shaking its head and neck and uttering a gurgling noise. 
Grieve (1885) listed 79 or 81 skins of the great auk, 2 or 3 physio- 
logical preparations, 10 skeletons, 121 or 131 birds represented by 
detached bones and 68 or 70 eggs still in existence. The numbers of 
these have slightly increased, especially in the list of detached bones, 
which would bring the number of individuals up to many thousands. 
The value of the skins and of the eggs has increased many fold and 
has reached fabulous sums. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Breeding range.—Formerly coasts and islands of the North Atlan- 
tic. The best-known breeding place was Funk Island, Newfound- 
land. It also bred on the Faroes and on islands off the southwest 
coast of Iceland, where the last pair of birds were taken alive in 
June, 1844, Although recorded from Greenland (Disco Island), it 
is now considered doubtful if the species bred north of the Arctic 
Circle. A cast was found in a loam deposit in southern Sweden that 
agrees with the egg of this species and this probably marks the east- 
ern limit of its range. 
Winter range.—Probably south along the coast from Newfound- 
land and Cape Breton to Maine and Massachusetts, casually to South 
Carolina and Florida; and from Denmark to France and northern 
Spain. One was found dead in Norway in the winter of 1838. 
ALLE ALLE (Linnaeus). 
DOVEKIE, 
HABITS. 
Although not so strictly confined to the Arctic Ocean in winter as 
Ross’s gull there is no more characteristic bird of the Arctic regions 
than the “little auk,” which swarms as abundantly, on the Atlantic 
side of this continent, as the various auklets do in Bering Sea. It 
winters much farther south than the little auklets, but it returns to 
its summer home at remarkably early dates, as soon as it can push 
northward into the forbidden regions of ice and snow, a hardy little 
