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Many sights described in his vivid prose can no longer be seen, like the great auk, which the naturalist mistakenly called a penguin.

In the past, researchers have speculated that environmental change topped off by human greed took down the great auk.

By about 1850, the great auk was extinct; the last two known specimens were hunted down by fishermen on Eldey Island, off the coast of Iceland.

I named it Auk I, after the great auk, an extinct bird that couldn’t fly.

McGrain’s subjects have included, among others, the passenger pigeon, the great auk, the Labrador duck, the heath hen, and the Carolina parakeet.