in Iceland respecting the Gare-fowl. 393 



on an island " at the north-east side of Iceland." A wrong 

 locality was probably furnished on purpose to mislead HerrMech- 

 lenburg ; but the fact of his never having had more than three 

 eggs, of which two came into his possession in, or shortly before 

 the year 1844, entirely disposes of Dr. Kjserbolling's assertion 

 to which I have before alluded*. Thus it is pretty evident that 

 most of the specimens of the Great Auk and its eggs, which now 

 exist in collections, were obtained from Eldey between the years 

 1830 and 1844t. 



From what has been ah*eady stated, it will be seen how great 

 Mr. Wolley's industry in collecting information was; yet I 

 must add a few more words. In former days, the Gare-fowls 

 were, in summer time, so constantly observed in the sea by the 

 fishermen, that their appearance was thought but little of. The 

 people from Kyrkjuvogr and Su^rnes used to begin to see them 

 when they arrived off Hafnaberg, and from thence to Reyk- 

 janes-rost. We were told by many people that they swam with 

 their heads much lifted up, but their necks drawn in ; they 

 never tried to flap along the water, but dived as soon as alarmed. 

 On the rocks they sat more upright than either Guillemots or 

 Razor-bills, and their station was further removed from the sea. 

 They were easily frightened by noise, but not by what they saw. 

 They sometimes uttered a few low croaks. They have never 

 been known to defend their eggs, but would bite fiercely if they 

 had the chance when caught. They walk or run with little, 

 short steps, and go straight like a man. One has been known 

 to drop down some two fathoms off the rock into the water. 

 Finally, I may add that the colour of the inside of their mouths 

 is said to have been yellow, as in the allied species. 



In 1846 Eldey was visited by Vilhjalmur and a party, and 



* The additions which, in the last edition of his work, Mr. Yarrell made 

 to his account of this bird (B. B. 3rd ed. vol. iii. pp. 482- 3), are copied from 

 Mr. Lloyd's ' Scandinavian Adventures' (ii. pp. 496-7), having been origi- 

 nally taken from Dr. KjserboUing's book, and are very inaccurate. 



t Lists of these, which are in the main correct, though I know of a few 

 that are omitted, have lately appeared in the ' Zoologist ' for the present 

 year (pp. 7353 & 7386), and almost simultaneously in the ' Field ' news- 

 paper (Nos. 423 & 424, pp. 93, 114). P'urther remarks on them will be 

 found in the former journal (pp. 7387 & 7438). 



VOL. III. 2 D 



