266 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



are white, and the line from bill to eye obscure. On the 

 bill in summer there is a raised rim at the base of the upper 

 mandible, but this and apparently part of the outer cuticle of 

 the lower mandible is lost in winter. The bill of the young bird 

 in autumn, when it has a plumage like the adult in winter, is 

 short, shallow, and at first ungrooved. The legs of the young 

 are dark brown, of the old bird practically black ; the irides are 

 brown, paler in the young. Length, 17 ins. Wing, 8-5 ins. 

 Tarsus, r2$ ins. 



Great Auk. AUa impennis Linn. 



From time to time popular interest is aroused in the Great 

 Auk ; an ^%% changes hands and brings a high price in a London 

 sale-room, and a more or less incorrect account of the Gare- 

 fowl appears in the Press. It is the money value of the t%g — for 

 oologists will give anything for a "British" ^^<g — and not the 

 bird that creates interest ; indeed, eggs are of more value than 

 skins ! The passing of the Great Auk occurred some eighty years 

 ago ; probably the last was killed in Iceland in 1844. Mr. H. 

 Evans has evidence that one was captured in St.Kilda four years 

 earlier, and, as a storm followed, was done to death as a witch. 

 A bird preserved in Dublin was caught at Waterford in 1834, 

 and one in the British Museum in Orkney in 1813. Altogether 

 some eighty skins and sixty-three eggs are supposed to exist. It 

 has been proved that it bred in Iceland, the Faeroes, Orkneys, 

 Outer Hebrides, especially St. Kilda, Greenland, Funk Island, 

 and other stations off the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. 

 As it did not range far north, it is unlikely that any unknown 

 breeding place exists ; it has gone for ever. It perished like 

 other unadaptable species because it failed to compete with 

 predacious man, who wiped it out at its breeding stations, 

 killing it for food. In form it was a large Razorbill, about 

 32 ins. long, with wings absurdly out of proportion, no more 



