in Iceland respecting the Gare-fuwI. 377 



enough. Herr Lanrenz Brodtkorb, of WardcE, in 1855, told Mr. 

 Wolley, repeating the story afterwards in my presence, that in 

 1848 he shot a large diving-bird, of which he did not know the 

 name, on a flat rocky skerry off Keenoe. He felt very certain that 

 it was not a Great Northern Diver [Cuhjmbus glacialis) ; but he 

 assured us that its beak was lika a Guillemot's {Uria) — that is, 

 narrow and pointed — and not like a Razor-bill's {Alca), thick and 

 truncated. He was equally sure that there was still a pair or two 

 of his species to be found among the Guillemots which breed on 

 this spot. Mr. Wolley, in a letter I received from him about this 

 time (1855), naively remarks, "I could not see one; but some of 

 the birds were off their eggs ;" and I feel bound to say that, 

 though Herr Brodtkorb has a practical knowledge of ornitho- 

 logy, I cannot consent to his opinion that the bird he shot was 

 a Great Auk*. 



Were I about to give a full and detailed account of the Gare- 

 fowl, I should think it best to divide the evidence collected into 

 two classes : (I.) that which may be considered documentary, 

 and (II.) that which is merely oral; again separating this latter 

 into (1) what is only traditional, and (2) what has actually come 

 to my informant's personal knowledge. In the present case, how- 

 ever, I believe it will be most convenient to take the various 

 matters as far as possible in the order of the time to which they 

 refer. But I must first enter upon a brief description of the 

 localities to which I shall have to allude. 



Any person who will take in hand the beautiful map of Ice- 

 land, executed by Herr 0. N. Olsen from the surveys of the 

 veteran Bjorn Gunnlaugsson, and published in 1844 under the 

 auspices of the Icelandic Literary Society t, will find the name 



* I mav arid, that near Wardcehuns, between the fortress and the shore 

 of the inlet ( Vest-Vaagen), on a raised sea-beach, is a vast bed of bones, 

 chiefly those of birds, but mingled with them a few Seals'. We brought 

 away a considerable quantity of specimens ; and on some other occasion I 

 may probably give an account of them ; but I am sure that they do not 

 include a single fragment which could possibly be a Gare-fowl's. 



t Uppdrattr I'slands, a fjorum blo^um gjii'Sr at? fyrirsogn O'. N. O'lsens, 

 gefinn lit af Enu I'slenzka Bokmentafelagi. Reykjavik og Kaupmanna- 

 hofn, 1844. 



VOL. III. 2i; 



