. Natural history. Zoology. Fig 24,—TheOkeat Auk (Ptdutus impennis). One of the most interesting of all the Alcce is the great auk, which was a kind of gigantic razorbill, but possessing such diminutive wings that the power of flight was denied to it. It has become extinct during the first half of the present century, and specimens of the bird and the egg fetch larire prices whenever they come into the market. The great auk, as Professor Newton has pointed out, owes its extinction entirely to the agency of man who hunted the bird to its destruction. It seems to have had a compara- tively limit
. Natural history. Zoology. Fig 24,—TheOkeat Auk (Ptdutus impennis). One of the most interesting of all the Alcce is the great auk, which was a kind of gigantic razorbill, but possessing such diminutive wings that the power of flight was denied to it. It has become extinct during the first half of the present century, and specimens of the bird and the egg fetch larire prices whenever they come into the market. The great auk, as Professor Newton has pointed out, owes its extinction entirely to the agency of man who hunted the bird to its destruction. It seems to have had a compara- tively limited range, having been abundant in Newfoundland and the adjacent shores of North America and Iceland, ranging in smaller num- bers to the Hebrides and the shores of Northern Britain. The razorbill {Aka tarda) and the guillemot (Uria troile) are well-known British birds, which breed in vast numbers on our coasts, the best-known nesting colonies being on the cliffs of Flamborough and on the Fame Islands, Here large numbers of the eggs are taken every year, those of the guillemot presenting an end- less variety of colour and marking. The black guillemot (Uria grylle) nests in the Arctic regions, and in the north of Scotland and Ire- land, and the rotche or little auk (Mergidm (die) is a winter visitor to Great Britain, being often driven far inland by stress of weather. The breeding-places of the little auk have been described as tenanted by- countless thou- sands. Admiral Beechey having stated that he saw a column of these birds on the wing at one time which he estimated at four millions ! Our English puffin, or sea-parrot, is a representative of the group of the auks which are most numerous in the North Pacilic Ocean, where several crested species are found. They are re- markable for the coloration of the bill, which is grooved in a curious fashion, and exhibits bright colours, while there is also a blue excrescence above the eye. These ornamental features of the bii-d's bill a
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Keywords: ., bookauthorly, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
