376 Mr. A. Newton on Mr. J. Wolley's Researches 



ginated in the inadvertence of naturalists, which, in the case of 

 northern locahties, leads them to speak of Spitzbergen, Green- 

 land, and Labrador as if they were synonymous, or at least in- 

 terchangeable terms. Regarding it in this light, long before 

 we had heard of Professor Steenstrup's conclusions, Mr. WoUey 

 and I had satisfied ourselves that statements like Temminck's, 

 that the Great Auk " vit et se trouve habituellement sur les 

 glaces flottantes du pole arctique, dont il ne s'eloigue qu'acci- 

 dentellement '^ (Man. d'Orn. ii. 940), were entirely contrary to 

 fact. There is, I believe, but one reliable instance on record of 

 the Gare-fowl* having occurred within the limits of the Arctic 

 Circle. This is the example said to have been killed on Disco in 

 182], and which, after changing hands several times, is now in 

 the University Museum at Copenhagen. The fact has been for 

 the first tin)e recorded in the present volume {' Ibis,' 1861, 

 p. 15), and my friend Professor Reinhardt there expresses his 

 belief that " the accounts of other instances, in which the bird is 

 said to have been obtained in Greenland, are hardly to be con- 

 fided int." 



There is, I take it, nothing which should really lead us to infer 

 that the Great Auk ever visited Spitzbergen %• The first English 

 writer to whom I can trace the report is Mr. Selby (Brit. Orn. ii. 

 p. 433) ; and that distinguished ornithologist has lately most 

 kindly informed me that the making mention of that locality 

 was a mistake, which would have been rectified had another 

 edition of his work been required. As to Norway, the only sup- 

 posed instance of its occurring there within the Arctic Circle is that 

 mentioned by Professor Steenstrup [I.e. p. 95, n.), and is doubtful 



* It may seem somewhat pedantic to revive this ancient and almost 

 forgotten name. In using it I am chiefly influenced by the fact that Mr. 

 WoUey had intended to have employed it. 



t I have spoken of the above as a " reliable instance " of an Arctic Great 

 Auk ; but I am not sure that even this is free from doubt ; for in a letter 

 Professor Reinhardt tells me he has " had some suspicion " whether the 

 reported Disco specimen of 1821 has not been confounded with one asserted 

 by the late lamented Governor HolboU (Kroyer's Tidsskrift, iv. p. 457) to 

 have been obtained at Fiskernaes [South Greenland) in 1815. If this 

 suspicion be correct, the Gare-foiol has probably never once occurred within 

 the Arctic Circle. J Cf. Ibis, 1859, pp. 173, 174. 



