Auk

“ ROLL CALL OF THE DEAD SPECIES OF AMERICAN BIRDS The Great Auk, —Plautus impennis, (Linn.) , was a sea-going diving bird about the size of a domestic goose, related to the guillemots, murres and puffins. For a bird endowed only with flipper-like wings, and therefore absolutely unable to fly, this species had an astonishing geographic range. It embraced the shores of northern Europe to North Cape, southern Greenland, southern Labrador, and the Atlantic coast of North America as far south as Massachusetts. ”

“ This specimen, however, was afterwards secured, and is now in the British Museum. The Great Auk measures about three feet in length, has a large bill, but wings so small as to be totally useless for flying, serving, however, as powerful swimming organs It is said to have laid a single egg on the bare rock,—usually, from the inability of the bird to rise on wing to the higher cliffs, close to the water edge. ”

“ The great auk is not the only mysterious creature in Greenland that seems likely soon to become entirely extinct, for there is, besides, the fierce and powerful amarok, which has been in latter times rarely seen, and is much dreaded. It is the national terror of the nursery and children are frightened to sleep or kept at home with threats of calling the awful monster, whose rapacity is so great that he can take off any number of Esquimaux babies that you choose to name. ”

“ Young; I know it very well. But Auks are not men, good or bad,—they are dogs.”
It was now nearly dark and quite so ere we found a harbor, not far from the fine Auk Glacier which descends into the narrow channel that separates Douglas Island from the mainland. Two of the Auks followed us to our camp after eight o’clock and inquired into our object in visiting them, that they might carry the news to their chief. One of the chief’s houses is opposite our camp a mile or two distant, and we concluded to call on him next morning. ”

“ I exclaimed; "here is a man living all alone on a strip of rock and sand between the wilderness and the sea, who wants you to send somebody to take charge of a bird that doesn't exist!"
"How do you know," asked Professor Farrago, "that the bird in question does not exist?"
"It is generally accepted," I replied sarcastically, "that the Great Auk has been extinct for years. ”

“ Meanwhile, on the neighboring cliff-face, had just occurred one of those incidents which were forever stirring up excitement among the colonies of the auks and the saddle-backs. It began in the usual way. Each pair of auks, it must be remembered, has but one egg, which is laid, with no pretence of a nest, on the bare narrow ledge. As these eggs lie side by side along the rock, just far enough apart for the parents to brood them, and as they all look amazingly alike, sometimes the owners themselves get mixed up as to the identity of their speckled property. ”

“ The bill, in all the species, is slender, strong, and pointed; the upper mandible bending slightly near the end, and the base covered with soft short feathers. The food of the guillemot consists of fish and other marine products.
The Alcidæ, or auks, are also included amongst the Arctic birds. The little auk (Arctica alca) frequents the countries stretching northwards from our latitudes to the regions of perpetual ice, and is found in the Polar Regions both of the Old World and the New. Here, indeed, they congregate in almost innumerable flocks. ”

“ The Foolish Guillemot seldom if ever attempts to bite, whereas the Razor-billed Auk bites most severely, and clings to a person’s hand until choked. The plumage of all the birds of this family is extremely compact, closely downed at the root, and difficult to be plucked. ”

“ The great auk's egg, of which a natural-size representation is given in the accompanying figure, was recently sold at auction in England for £225; this is the highest price ever given for a single egg at any auction in England. ”

“ They caught lobsters in the rock pools, and speared or clubbed seals and great walruses for their flesh and oil. An occasional whale provided them with oil, blubber, and meat. The Great Auk—which could not fly—swarmed in millions on the cliffs and islets. So abundant was this bird, and so fat, that its body was sometimes used as fuel, or as a lamp. In the summertime their fish and flesh diet could be varied by the innumerable berries growing wild—strawberries, raspberries, currants, cranberries, and whortleberries. ”

“ The great auk, once common on the British coasts, those of Denmark, the east coast of North America, then restricted to those of Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland, has been killed by man, and the same fate has overtaken the Labrador duck, the Phillip Island parrot, Nestor productus, and the large cormorant of Bering Island, Phalacrocorax perspicillatus ”

“ The alke-kung (little auk) , also called the "sea king," or rotge, occurs only sparingly off the southern part of Novaya Zemlya, and does not, so far as I know, breed there. The situation of the land is too southerly, the accumulations of stones along the sides of the mountains too inconsiderable, for the thriving of this little bird. But on Spitzbergen it occurs in incredible numbers, and breeds in the talus, 100 to 200 metres high, which frost and weathering have formed at several places on the steep slopes of the coast mountain sides ”

“ These birds were the hitherto mentioned little auk (uria allæ) , and are a water-fowl not larger than a quail. The swift flutter of their wings and their constant cry filled the air with a roar like that of a storm advancing among the forest trees. The valley was glowing with the sunlight of the early morning, which streamed in over the glacier, and robed hill, mountain, and plain in brightness.
Hans had pitched his tent at the further end of the lake, and Kalutunah came up with Myouk and Alatak, - 389 - and joined him. Jensen quickly shot a deer, and Hans brought us some auks ”

“ In Greenland, where it is commonly found a close companion of the black-billed auk, the native Greenlanders call the Dovekie the Ice Bird, as they consider it a harbinger of ice.
Though the wings of the Dovekie are small in proportion to the size of its body it flies well and rapidly. One writer states that it will move its wings almost as rapidly as will a humming-bird. It is an expert diver and while swimming or resting on the water it will frequently dip its bill into the water. On the land it is much more graceful and walks better than nearly all the other members of the family of auks. ”

“ Nobody can doubt that the Great Auk is extinct. The last specimens were obtained on Eldey, near Iceland, in 1844, and the seas and islands where the great bird used to live are frequented by vessels every year. It is true that a certain Lorenz Brodtkorb told that in April, 1848, he saw four Great Auks, of which he shot one, near the Varanger Fjord, east of the North-Cape, but Professor Newton and Wolley have, in 1855, had an interview with Brodtkorb, and came to the conclusion that he saw and shot the Great Northern Diver. ”

“ I naturally looked everywhere in the little Museum for an egg of the Great Auk, or a stuffed specimen of the bird, but there was neither, which struck me as rather curious, considering Iceland was originally the home of this now extinct species. Not even an egg has been found for over forty years, although diligent search has been made by several well-known naturalists. ”

“ This section alone was accessible to the flightless garefowl, and here in days gone by the great auk scrambled through the breakers and over the slippery rocks, which north and south slope into the sea, to reach its nesting-place. Here, to-day, its bones lie buried in the shallow soil, every weathered slab of granite marking the resting-place of some ill-fated bird. The industrious puffins, whose labors have everywhere honey-combed the ground, play the part of resurrectionists, and the entrance to each burrow is ornamented by a little heap of slowly whitening bones. ”

“ The mammoth is discovered rarely embedded in blocks of ice under the Arctic Circle. The gigantic moa of New Zealand is recovered only from its scattered bones. The Great Auk was last seen off the coast of Waterford in 1834. Her egg sells for about a hundred pounds. A species of the English milk-maid is said to exist on the High Alps, and is called the Sennerin, but is so unlike the milk-maid of English picture and story, that naturalists are disposed to dispute it as a species, and regard it as belonging to a different genus. ”

“ Our egg is not to be found in any of the famous collections on which oologists have spent fortunes, and for the acquisition of which museums have set apart large sums. Though no one ever lavished upon it such amounts as have been paid for an egg of the Great Auk or the extinct Dodo, it is practically as seldom seen, and as little known, as any of the rare eggs which collectors covet so ardently and prize so highly. ”

“ The birds have red, parrot-like bills, and they have pale grey faces with markings that make them look as if they were wearing spectacles.
"Their bodies are chunky, and they shuffle about very clumsily. They don't like it a bit when people come where they have their nests.
"But the razor-billed auk doesn't make any nest—it just lays its egg on the bare rock in the biting cold. There are very few auks left to-day, but there were lots of them when Audubon the naturalist visited Labrador ninety years ago. Audubon tells how a band of 'eggers' started out just like pirates. ”

“ Going to dark bed there was a square round Sinbad the Sailor roc’s auk’s egg in the night of the bed of all the auks of the rocs of Darkinbad the Brightdayler. ”

“ The first edition was completed in November, 1889, and then enumerated 367 species considered as British. In this edition the total is raised to 384, and some of the new additions will be familiar to the readers of this magazine. Of the 384 species described, "those which have bred within the United Kingdom during the present century may be taken as 199 (if the extinct Great Auk is included) ; about 74 non-breeding wanderers have occurred fewer than six times, and 66 others are more or less infrequent visitors ”

“ Among the birds, the great auk (Alca impennis) , now extinct in Europe, and fast becoming exterminated in Greenland, is the most abundantly represented in the refuse-heaps. There are also wild ducks, geese, wild swans, and capercailzies. The last of these feeds principally on the buds of the pines, and consequently it may be inferred from its presence that at this time the country was covered with dense forests of pine, or the earliest of the three great forest-growths which are shown by the discoveries in the peat-bogs to have occurred in the following order:—
1. ”

“ The true Auks, though properly oceanic birds, scarcely ever leaving the water except for the purposes of reproduction, can run, though awkwardly, on foot, when pursued on land. They breed in caverns or lofty cliffs, laying but one large egg. ”

“ When they lay their eggs in such a horizontal cavern as that which I have mentioned above, you find them scattered at the distance of a few inches from each other; and there, as well as in the fissures, they sit flat upon them like Ducks, for example, whereas on an exposed rock, each bird stands almost 115 upright upon its egg. Another thing quite as curious, which I observed, is, that, while in exposed situations, the Auk seldom lays more than one egg, yet in places of greater security I have, in many instances, found two under a single bird. ”

“ In May, the Little Auk resorts to the land to breed. It is eminently gregarious, and some of its colonies consist of an almost incredible number of birds. Curiously enough, its breeding places are not always by the sea, some of them being situated a considerable distance from the coast. Sloping rock-covered banks at the foot of the cliffs, seem to be preferred to the cliff themselves. A favourite situation is on the sloping ground below a range of cliffs, where the surface is covered with stones and rock fragments that have, during succeeding ages, crumbled from the precipices towering above. ”

“ The eggs taste exceedingly well. The nest is very inconsiderable, smelling badly like the bird itself.
When the navigator has gone a little further north and come to an ice-bestrewed sea, the swell ceases at once, the wind is hushed and the sea becomes bright as a mirror, rising and sinking with a slow gentle heaving. Flocks of little auks (Mergulus alle, L.) Brünnich's guillemots (Uria Brünnichii, Sabine) , and black guillemots (Uria grylle, L.) now swarm in the air and swim among the ice floes. ”

“ It is very fine work, and afterwards you have to get them dusty, for no one who owns one of these precious eggs has ever the temerity to clean the thing. That’s the beauty of the business. Even if they suspect an egg they do not like to examine it too closely. It’s such brittle capital at the best.
“You did not know that taxidermy rose to heights like that. My boy, it has risen higher. I have rivalled the hands of Nature herself. One of the genuine great auks—” his voice fell to a whisper—“one of the genuine great auks was made by me. ”

“ Of the last group of Auks, with feathered nostrils, Uria troile, the well-known Common Guillemot, Willock, or Murre, breeds numerously in Britain, where the cliffs are suitable; it extends from Bear Island near Spitsbergen to the Magdalen Islands in America and the Tagus in Europe, occurring on migration southwards to the New England States and the Canaries. The plumage is dusky above and white below, with a brownish head and white alar bar. The throat, cheeks, and a few feathers on the head are white in winter; the long pointed bill and feet are blackish. ”