Plautus linuennls 
Ml. xx>x. ,4fcuU- [of?. 3if2, 
THE GREAT AUK. 3 ^3. 
The sale by auction of an egg of the great auk for the 
unprecedented sum of £225, has again attracted the atten¬ 
tion of the public to the history and relics of this bird, one 
of the last species that has been exterminated by the 
agency of man. The great auk, which may be described as 
a gigantic razor-bill, but with wings so small as to be in¬ 
capable of flight, was a common bird at one period, hun¬ 
dreds being caught periodically on the small islands off 
Newfoundland, and on the coast of Iceland. The species 
also occurred in St. Kilda, and the Orkney and Faroe 
Islands. The last specimen from Orkney was killed in 
1812, that from St. Kilda in 1822, and the last recorded cap¬ 
ture was made on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland, in 1844. 
So recent has been the extinction of this fine species, that 
•EGO OF THE GREAT AUK (HATURAL SIZE.) 
in the early editions of Yarrell’s “Birds,” and even in Mac- 
gillivray’s fifth volume of the “British Birds,” published in 
1852, it is spoken of as still existing. 
The cause of the destruction of the great auk and its ad¬ 
dition to the list of species of birds exterminated by man, 
which at present includes the moa of New Zealand, the 
dodo and solitaire of the Mauritius, is not far to seek. 
When the species was plentiful, and hundreds were to be 
found at their breeding places, they were easily captured, 
being of slow movement on land, and utterly incapable of 
flight. The French fishermen who frequented the coast of 
Newfoundland for the purpose of capturing cod were ac¬ 
customed, according to a correspondent of Hakluyt, to 
victual themselves always with those birds, salting them 
down in hundreds; and as late as a century since, a Mr. G. 
Cartwright prophesied they would be all destroyed, for on 
Fogo Island they were captured by laying gangboards from 
the gunwale of the boat to the rocks, and driving on board 
as many as the boat would carry. The captors must have 
taken some care to prevent any of the garefowl reaching 
the water, for once in what may be termed their native 
element, the rapidity of their movements would have rend¬ 
ered all pursuit perfectly hopeless. 
