Scientific name: Alca impennis
English: Gare-fowl
Danish: Gejrfugl
Greenland: Agpardluk

The Great Auk was probably never an abundant bird although its range extended to both sides of the Atlantic south of the Arctic Circle, to the Bay of Biscay of France, and to the coasts of Newfoundland on the North American side. Some other suggested locations are now considered doubtful.^{63, 439} The skeletal remains which have been found as far south as Florida indicate, however, at least an extended winter range.

Funk Island, located about 60 kilometers off the Northwestern coast of Newfoundland, supported a thriving colony of Great Auks until man arrived to exploit, plunder, and eventually exterminate the innocent creatures. The last Great Auk on Funk Island perished during the early years of the nineteenth century.³³⁴

Standard external measurements for the Great Auk are not recorded 359 however, it stood about 76 centimeters tall and possibly weighed almost five times heavier than the largest living alcid (murres). Its wings possibly measured a mere 14 centimeters, far too short to support such a large bird in flight, but these stubby, highly specialized wings provided for rapid propulsion underwater. The tail was 7.62 centimeters long and the length of the upper mandible (culmen) was 8.0 centimeters, about equal to the length of the middle toe.⁶³

This magnificent, penguin-like bird, was especially vulnerable, being slaughtered for its flesh, fat, and feathers. The species became extinct when the last two Great Auks were captured for museum displays in 1844 on Eldey Island near the southwest corner of Iceland.⁴³⁹ As early as 1785, its extinction was predicted by George Cartwright who wrote in his journal that it was customary for crews to live all summer long on Funk Island for the sole purpose of killing birds for their feathers: "The destruction they have made is incredible. If a stop is not soon put to the practice, the whole breed will be diminished to almost nothing.²³¹

Other accounts describe the driving of the flightless birds into stone corrals where they were easily killed, and their feathers removed by immersing them in boiling water. Ironically, their fatty bodies were used for fuel to boil the water. In 1865, Alfred Newton compiled an abstract of the last accounts of the Great Auk or gare-fowl from the research of Mr. J. Wolley.⁴⁴⁴

We were told by many people that they swam with their their heads much lifted up, but their necks drawn in; they never tried to flap along the water, but dived as soon as alarmed. On the rocks they sat more upright than either guillemots or razorbills, and their station was further removed from the sea. They were easily frightened by noise, but not by what they saw. They sometimes uttered a few low croaks. They have never been known to defend their eggs, but would bite fiercely if they had the chance when caught. They walk or run with little, short steps, and go straight like a man. One has been known to drop down some two fathoms off the rock into the water. Finally, I may add that the colour of the inside of their mouths is said to have been yellow, as in allied species.

The account of the capture of the last two auks is a witness to the audacity of man in his quest for the possession of the rare and unusual:

As the men clambered up, they saw two gare-fowl sitting among the numberless other rock birds (murres, razorbills) and at once gave chase. The gare-fowls showed not the slightest disposition to repel the invaders, but immediately ran along under the high cliff, their heads erect, their wings somewhat extended. They uttered no cry of alarm, and moved, with their short steps, about as quickly as a man could walk. Jon with outstretched arms drove one into a corner, where he soon had it fast. Singuer and Ketil pursued the second, and the former seized it close to the edge of the rock, here risen to a precipice some fathoms high, the water being directly below it. Ketil then returned to the sloping shelf where the birds had started and saw an egg lying on the lava slab, which he knew to be a gare-fowl's. He took it up, but finding it to be broken, put it down again. Whether there was not another egg is uncertain. All this took place in much less time than it takes to tell it. They hurried down again, for the wind was rising. The birds were strangled and cast into the boat.

This account mentions that the two birds were sold for about nine pounds and that the bodies were ultimately preserved in the museum of the University of Copenhagen. The fate of the skins is unknown. Why could not the last have been spared? Perhaps the Great Auk would have suffered extinction in a storm at sea, but it is pitiful to record that they disappeared forever at the hands of man, the intelligent creature endowed with the capacity to love and admire, yet be the most destuctive of all.
More than a century ago Newton finished his abstract with words similar to the pleas of concern we often hear today for other species. Man learns slowly:

Whether the gare-fowl be already extirpated or still existing in some unknown spot, it is clear that its extinction, if not already accomplished, must speedily follow on its rediscovery. I have therefore to beseech all who may be connected with the matter to do their utmost that such rediscovery should be turned to the best account. If in this point we neglect our opportunities, future naturalists will just reproach us. The mere possession of a few skins or eggs, more or less, is as nothing. Our science demands something else that we shall transmit to posterity a less perishable inheritance.

This is about all that is positively known of the habits of the Great Auk. An attempt to assess the food of the Great Auk was made by Storrs Olsen and his colleagues, by sifting through fragments in a crate of peat from Funk Island found stored at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D C. since 1887. They discovered scales from various shallow - water species of fish, along with many bones of Great Auks, leading them to suggest that, during the breeding season, Great Auks fed mostly in shallow coastal water.^{63, 461}
The bulk of the memories, unfortunately, are accounts of its brutal and needless slaughter. If man does not soon learn to care, it is possible that Razorbills, puffins, Dovekies, and the others will also perish at the hands of man's quest for flesh and we will lose forever more species of this remarkable family of birds from the face of the seas.