[The Past and present of La Salle County, Illinois : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, general and local statistics, map of La Salle County, history of Illinois, Constitution of the United States, miscellaneous matters, etc, etc..
The great auk was 75 to 85 centimetres (30 to 33 in) tall and weighed around 5 kilograms (11 lb) The size of a medium penguin, it lived in the open ocean except for when it waddled ashore for breeding on just a few islands.
One was collected on the Great Barrier Reef in 1917 that measured 49 inches by 29 inches, and weighed 579.5 pounds. The shell of a close relative, Tridacna gigas, was found off Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan in 1956 measuring 45.25 inches in length and weighing 734 pounds.