GREAT AUK. 
415 
the horrors of a region covered with eternal ice. Here it 
is commonly found upon the floating masses of the gelid 
ocean, far from land, to which alone it resorts in the season 
of procreation. 
Deprived of the use of wings, degraded as it were from the 
feathered ranks, and almost numbered with the amphibious 
monsters of the deep, the Auk seems condemned to dwell 
alone in those desolate and forsaken regions of the earth ; 
yet aided by all-bountiful Nature, it finds means to subsist, 
and triumphs over all the physical ills of its condition. As 
a diver it remains unrivalled, proceeding beneath the water, 
its most natural element, almost with the velocity of many 
birds in the air. It thus contrives to vary its situation with 
the season, migrating for short distances, like the finny prey 
on which it feeds. In the Faroe Isles, Iceland, Greenland, and 
Newfoundland these birds dwell and breed in great numbers. 
They nest among the steepest cliffs of islands, remote from the 
shore, in the vicinity of .floating ice, taking possession of cav- 
erns, and the crannies and clefts of rocks ; or they dig for them- 
selves deep burrows in which they lay their only egg, about the 
size of that of the Swan, whitish yellow, marked with numerous 
lines and spots of black, which present to the imagination the 
idea of Chinese characters. They are so unprolific that if this 
egg be taken away they lay no other that season. 'Their time 
of breeding is June and July. 
'The Auk is known sometimes to breed in the Isle of St. 
Kilda, and in Papa Westra, according to Mr. Bullock, for sev- 
eral years past no more than a single pair had made their 
appearance. It feeds on large fish, and also on some ma- 
rine plants, as well as on those which grow on the rocks con- 
tiguous to their holes or burrows. The young birds tear up 
the roots of the Rhodiola 7-osca. Many are said to breed on 
the desert coasts of Newfoundland, where they have been seen 
by navigators, though not recently. According to Pennant, the 
Esquimaux, who frequented this island, made clothing of the 
skins of these birds. The older ones are very shy, and but 
rarely venture to the shore, on which they walk badly, though 
