240 BACKBONED ANIMALS. 
like feathers. The bill is flattened and knife-like, the feet 
webbed, and placed so far back that upon shore the birds 
stand erect. The bones of this and the preceding order 
are solid. 
Auk (Alcide).—The great auk* (Alca impennis) (Fig. 
279) is remarkable as having become extinct since 1870, 
and hardly seventy perfect specimens are known in the 
world. Its length was about three feet, that of the wings 
four inches. The bill was powerful, wings small, the back 
black and breast white. They laid a single egg, about as 
large as that of a swan, 
spotted with small, irregu- 
lar blotches. The little 
auk (Simorhynchus pusillus), 
common in the Arctic re- 
gions, is the smallest spe- 
cies known, being only sev- 
en inches in length. They 
lay on the ice or rocks a 
small, bluish-white egg. 
Their cry is ott-tet-tet-tet- 
tet, continually repeated. 
They are found in large 
. : numbers in northern Nor- 
Fic. 279.—Great auk, abird thathas way. The Guillemots (& via) 
iia extinct within fourteen (Fig. 280, 5), six species of 
which are known in the 
Arctic waters, have long, straight, pointed, conical bills. 
The general color is dirty black. They breed in vast 
quantities on inaccessible cliffs, always facing the sea. A 
single egg is laid, and, according to Sir John Richardson, 
* Three hundred years ago they were caught by the boat-load by 
the early fishermen, and now the preserved specimens are so rare that 
$650 was paid for one in the Museum of Natural History, New York, 
It formerly ranged the coast of Maine, where its bones are now some- 
times found in the shell-heaps. 
