578 WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS 
had been removed. On looking over the specimens of 
our collections, marks of teeth of animals were frequently 
noticed, some of them of such size as might be made by 
dogs, but others by a much smaller animal, as a cat. or 
mink. 
Of the remains of birds, by far the most interesting are 
those of the Great Auk (Alca impennis), which formerly 
had a much wider geographical distribution than now, for 
having followed the glaciers in their retreat, at present it 
is confined to the arctic and subarctic regions. In Europe 
it formerly existed, as appears from the evidence of the 
shell-heaps, on the shores of Scotland, the Orkneys, and 
it has recently died out in Iceland. In the United States 
we have the authority of Steenstrup and Prof. Baird for 
its former existence as far south as Cape Cod. There can 
be but little doubt that the last survivors lingered till 
after the arrival of the Europeans. The description of the 
“Wobble,” by Josslyn, as far as it goes, applies to the 
Great Auk, “an ill-shaped bird, having no long feathers in 
their pinions which is the reason they cannot fly ; not much 
unlike a penguin.” * 
There are various traditions along the sea-coast of its 
having been seen at a much later date: Audubon, how- 
ever, in his voyage to Labrador saw none in the Straits 
of Belle Isle, but was told that they still bred on an island 
north of Newfoundland. 
The remains of the Great Auk in the shell-heaps of 
Maine, were in sufficient numbers to show that it must 
have been common, since seven specimens of the humerus 
alone were found, besides fragments of the cranium, jaws, 
and sternum. The specimens of humerus differed re- 
: ee saat in „ondition from the same bone of other birds 
+N, TA, pp D. Ni p. li 
