Genus ALCA. 
Gen. Cuar. Beak straight, arched, large, very much curved at the point; both mandibles 
laterally sulcated, and covered for half their length with short feathers. Nostrils near the 
lower edge of the upper mandible partly concealed by feathers. Wings short, narrow, 
and in one species unequal to the purpose of flight. Legs short, situated far backwards. 
Toes three before, webbed as far as the claws; hind toe wanting; front of the tarsi and 
toes scutellated. Taz short, pointed, and consisting of twelve or sixteen feathers. 
GREAT AUK. 
Alca impennis, Lenn. 
Le Pingouin brachiptere. 
In this noble species of Auk we recognise a close approximation to the true Penguins, which form the genus 
Aptenodytes : being, like them, destitute of the powers of flight, its narrow slender wing serves more as an oar 
for aquatic progression than for any other decided purpose ; unless, perhaps, in assisting the bird to scramble 
up the rocks, on the ledges of which it deposits its single egg, which is, indeed, the only time at which it 
makes the solid earth its abode. 
The seas of the polar regions, agitated with storms and covered with immense icebergs, form the congenial 
habitat of the Great Auk: here it may be said to pass the whole of its existence, braving the severest winters 
with the utmost impunity, so that it is only occasionally seen, and that at distant intervals, even so far south 
as the seas adjacent to the northernmost parts of the British Islands. It is found in abundance along the 
rugged coasts of Labrador; and from the circumstance of its having been seen at Spitzbergen, we may 
reasonably conclude that its range is extended throughout the whole of the arctic circle, where it may often 
be seen tranquilly reposing on masses of floating ice, to the neighbourhood of which in the open ocean it 
seems to give a decided preference. Like the common Razorbilled Auk, it exhibits an-annual change in the 
colours of its throat and neck, the jet black of these parts giving way to white in winter. Deficient as the 
Great Auk may be in the powers of flight and of easy unconstrained progression on the land, these deficien- 
cies are amply compensated by its extraordinary capability of diving and its express adaptation to the watery 
element: here it is truly at ease, following its prey and sporting in the midst of the waves. Its food consists 
exclusively of fish of various species, which, however rapid they may be in their motions, it captures with the 
utmost facility. 
Its single egg is deposited on the naked rock, either in some natural fissure or crevice just above the reach 
of the highest tides ; its colour white tinged with buff, marked with spots and crooked lines of brownish black. 
The young take to the water immediately after exclusion from the egg, and follow the adults with fearless 
confidence. 
There exists but little or no difference between the size or plumage of the sexes. In summer the whole 
of the upper surface is black, with the exception of a large white space before the eyes and the tips of the 
secondary quill-feathers ; the whole of the under surface white ; bill and legs black, the former being marked 
with oblique transverse furrows of a lighter tint. 
The Plate represents an adult in its summer dress about two thirds of the natural size. 
