274 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



counties, and are not imfrequently carried by the 

 gale to a considerable distance inland. This was 

 particularly the case in the winter of 1894-95 

 {Field, Feb. 9, 1895). 



Specimens in summer plumage are rarely met 

 with in England. One in the collection of the late 

 F. Bond was picked up dead in the Solent in the 

 autumn of 1870. Another is in the Museum at 

 Cambridge ; and a third, with a black throat, was 

 shot at Wells, Norfolk, May 26, 1857 (Steven- 

 son, Zool, 1857, p. 5758), all of which I have 

 had opportunities of examining. 



GREAT AUK or G ARE-FOWL, xilca impennis, Lin- 

 naeus. Length, 32 in. (Montagu gives 36 in.) ; bill, 

 3-5 in. ; wing, 6 in. ; tarsus, 2 in. 



This flightless sea-bird, once frequenting the 

 coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, and 

 the south-west of Iceland, was formerly a regular 

 inhabitant of the British Islands, but is now be- 

 lieved to be extinct, no living example having 

 been procured or seen since 1844, when the last 

 of its race, so far as is known, was killed off Eldey 

 Island, Iceland. 



Under the name of " Gare-fowl," the Great Auk 

 was noticed by Sir George M'Kenzie about 1684, in 

 his account of Hirta (St. Kilda) and Rona, pub- 

 lished in Pinkerton's " Voyages," vol. iii. p. 730, 

 and is mentioned in Martin's " Voyage to St. 

 Kilda," 1698, as formerly breeding on St. Kilda; 

 it is also noticed in Macaulay's "History of St. 



