The Great Auk, Or Garefowl (Alca Impennis, Linn;) (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Great Auk, or Garefowl (Alca Impennis, Linn;) Mr. Seebohm3 says, It was once a British bird now it is regarded as an extinct species, like the Solitaire Pigeon of Rodriguez, the phillip-island Parrot, the Dodo of the Mauritius, and the Moa of New Zealand. The extinction of the Great Auk has taken place during the lifetime of the present generation. It is scarcely more than half a century since the last British example of this curious bird was killed in the Orkneys; and when, ten years later, the survivors of the only colony left were captured, the history of the Great Auk became a legend of the past. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.