Great Auk Extinct

"In spite of this belt [of ice], our two longboats were sent off to the island to procure some of the birds, whose numbers are so great as to be incredible . . . it is so exceeding full of birds that one would think they had been stowed there . . . Some of these birds are as large as geese, being black and white with a beak like a crow's. They are always in the water, not being able to fly in the air, inasmuch as they have only small wings about the size of half one's hand, with which however they move as quickly along the water as the other birds fly through the air. And these birds are so fat that it is marvelous. We call them apponats; and our two longboats were laden with them as with stones in less than half an hour . . ."