THE GREAT AUK IN ART. 5 11 



but Martin saw the birds. Sir William Jarcline, in I860, says the 

 white spot is in front and around the eye, but his drawing shows he 

 had not the courage of his conviction. However, Carpenter, in 1866, 

 and Dallas, in 1867, took Jardine at his word, as appears from their 

 illustrations of the bird. It is noteworthy that while nearly all the 

 authors quoted describe the form of this spot as ' oval, ' the photographs 

 of mounted birds rarely show such an outline. This is owing to faulty 

 taxidermy. A sub-triangular spot seems to have been the popular 

 form with the majority, both of artists and taxidermists, in spite of the 

 practical uniformity in description as to the oval shape. From the 

 time of Brookes, in 1771, until a comparatively recent date, there has 

 existed a strong desire to continue the spot under the eye, thus in a 

 degree conforming to Martin's description in 1697. Audubon aimed 

 to satisfy everybody, for in his swimming bird a white triangular spot 

 continues under the eye while the ' large oblong white patch before each 

 eye' of his standing bird conforms to his description.* Referring to 

 the illustration of the Smithsonian auk, after remounting, it will be 

 noted that the white spot is oval or elliptical in shape, with a compara- 

 tively even and regular outline, and this is believed to represent this 

 characteristic marking of the species in its correct form and position. 

 Any taxidermist can understand how a dried skin which has been soft- 

 ened unevenly might be stretched in such manner as to extend the 

 margin of the spot outward in any direction, even under the eye, as in 

 Audubon's swimming bird, or how an indentation could be produced 

 such as appears on the front margin of the spot in his standing bird. 

 Neither of these outlines, however, is tenable in the light of the evi- 

 dence offered. The oval spot surrounding the eye can only be sup- 

 ported by an appeal to the offhand statement of Sir William Jardine, 

 & statement which is disputed by every available fact. 



Little need be said concerning the illustrations of the bill of the 

 great auk, except thkt the outline in the majority is fairly good, al- 

 though the representation of the grooves and their location on the bill 

 appears to have been subject to speculative influences. The 'white 

 grooves' of several authors should not be confounded with the white 

 lines which appear crossing both maxilla and mandible in all published 

 photographs. These lines are high-light lines due to light reflected 

 from the elevated ridges above the grooves. An examination of the 

 bills of mounted great auks shows that the grooves are a horn-white 

 or whitish in the bottom, a shade much darker than the reflected light 

 from the polished ridge would appear. 



* The auks of Audubon accompanying this article were copied from the 

 plate in the Library Edition of 1840 in which he says, regarding the illustra- 

 tions "the drawings on stone and the colouring, have also been well done and 

 the former are almost all superior to the first numbers of the work, which I 

 considered very good.' 



