i22 The Irish Naturalist, [May, 



middens, and of the same nature as those of the continent, e.g., 

 in Portugal, and also at various parts along the coast of 

 France, as well as in Denmark. The fauna of the sandhills is 

 wonderfully in line with that of the kitchen-middens of Den- 

 mark, and the finding of the Great Auk, which is now extinct 

 in Europe, among the Irish remains, makes the likeness more 

 complete." 



As regards the occurrence of this bird on the Irish coasts in 

 modern times, the last authenticated British example', and the 

 last but two which is known to have lived, was taken alive 

 near the entrance of Waterford Harbour, in May, 1834, by a 

 fisherman named Kirby. It was kept alive for some little 

 time by Mr. Jacob Gough of Horetown, in Co. Wexford, but 

 eventually came into the hands of Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, 

 and it is now in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. The 

 details of the capture of this bird, and of its subsequent 

 historj% as given by Thompson^, appear to have been somewhat 

 inaccurate, and have been corrected by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun.," 

 on the authority of Dr. Burkitt. It was afterwards ascer- 

 tained by Mr. Davies that a second specimen was procured 

 on the Waterford coast at about the same time, but was not 

 preserved. 



Besides the above, details of three other occurrences are 

 given by Thompson'*, but in no case was a specimen forth- 

 coming. One of these specimens was stated, in a note com- 

 municated by Rev. Joseph Stopford, in February, 1844, to Dr. 

 Harvey of Cork, no date being mentioned, to have been '' ob- 

 tained on the long strand of Castle Freke (in the west of the 

 County of Cork) ; having been water-soaked in a storm." In 

 the other case Thompson believed that two birds described to 

 him by H. Bell, a wild-fowl shooter, as having been seen in 

 Belfast Bay, on September 23rd, 1845, were of this species.^ 



' Newton, Op. cil., p. 220. 



' Proc. Zool. Soc.^ Lond.y 1835, p. 79; and " Nat. Hist, of Ireland," III., p. 238. 



3 Zoologist, 1868, pp. 1449-1453. 



^ Op. cit., p. 239 ; Zoologist, 1868, pp. 1442-1453 ; 1869, pp. 1039-1043. 



^The statement in Sampson's "Survey of Londonderry" (1S02) that the 

 Aha Impennis, Penguin, "frequents the rocks of that county and of 

 Donegal," evidently refers to the Razorbill, which bird is not mentioned 

 in his list. It is curious that Dr. Pocock describes " the Razorbill or Auk, 

 as big as a Pheasant, with a parrot bill," as breeding at Horn Head in 

 1752 — vide Dr. Stokes' edition of Pocock's " Tour in Ireland in 1752," p. 59. 



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