TOWNSEND AND ALLEN: LABRADOR BIRDS. 
307 
found them frozen inland or on the ice. Cartwright’s definition of 
“Tinker” is: “A sea fowl. ‘Razorbill’—Pennant.” 
The immense numbers of these birds on the southern coast in Audu¬ 
bon’s time are attested in his accounts and have been already referred 
to under “Bird and egg destruction.” Stearns says: “At the Fox 
Islands, off Kecarpin River they are very abundant.... I noticed 
them in thousands about several other small islands also, and am 
informed by the inhabitants that this species was always very abun¬ 
dant about this locality.” Unfortunately at the present day the rapa¬ 
cious fishermen have played havoc in their ranks. We saw about 
two dozen only along the southern coast, but in the vicinity of Battle 
Harbor not a bird of this species, and scarcely a gull was to be seen. 
Only the cautious Black Guillemots that hide their eggs in rocky clefts 
and keep themselves out of gunshot flourished. Between Battle 
Harbor and Nain fiord north we saw about 84 Razor-billed Auks, 
and about 47 on our return south. We saw about 25 flying around an 
island between Holton and Cape Harrison, and about 40 near a high 
rocky island a little south of Nain. The “thousands” of bygone 
years are no more! 
In flight the birds sway from side to side like all the Alcidae and 
they generally fly thirty feet or so above the water, not skimming 
close to it like the Black Guillemot and Puffin. They are distinguished 
from Murres in flight by their short neck, and from Puffins by their 
larger size and the absence of the gray patch on the side of the head. 
As they fly away, they show white on either side of a black median 
line, while the Puffin shows a continuous black back. Swimming 
on the water, they sometimes cock their tails at an angle of about 45°. 
On the rocky ledges they sit bolt upright displaying their white breasts. 
Mr. Schmitt at Nain told us they laid their eggs there early and 
in the middle of July. 
[Plautus impennis (Linn.). Great Auk; “ Penguin. ”— Extinct. The 
last Great Auk seen alive was in 1852. In 1853, the dead body of one was 
found floating in the waters of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Like the 
Gannet at the present day, it is probable that the Great Auk bred in only a few 
chosen places, chief of which was Funk Island, lying 32 miles off the north¬ 
east coast of Newfoundland, and although the bird may have bred on the 
Labrador coast we have no evidence of it, either from history or from the 
presence of egg shells or bones, such as have been found in numbers at Funk 
Island. However, there is no doubt but that the bird, if not a resident, was 
formerly a frequent visitor to the Labrador coast. 
