On June 3rd, 1844, three men cornered the last breeding pair of great auks on a rocky Icelandic islet, strangled them, and crushed their single egg underfoot. We rarely know the exact day a species dies, but this is that story. We trace the great auk, Pinguinus impennis, the original bird to bear the name penguin, from a population in the tens of millions to total oblivion, killed off by feather hunters, fishing-bait harvesters, and ultimately the museums and collectors who placed an astronomical bounty on its last survivors.

We explore the biology of a flightless ocean master built by convergent evolution to mirror its unrelated southern namesakes, its 100,000 years of coexistence with humans, and the brutal industrial slaughter on Funk Island. From the bizarre witch killing on St. Kilda to the volcanic sinking of its final island sanctuar ...