588 Prof. Newton on the 



the very face of the cliff above [op. cit. p. 250) . Further- 

 more^ an examination of the whole island showed that there 

 was no possible breeding-place for such a bird as this upon 

 it, thougli he made out to the satisfaction of all where the 

 bird had been accustomed to rest ; and by a very unexpected 

 piece of good fortune ascertained the precise spot where, 

 and the circumstances in which, the last of the Orcadian 

 Garefowls met its death. To the fidelity of the plate [op. cit., 

 to face p. 246) representing some of the remarkable series of 

 waterworn caves on the north-east corner of the island — the 

 Fowls^ or Auks^ Crag, one of which was the scene of the 

 tragedy of 1813 — I can bear witness ; and there is no reason 

 to doubt the conclusions at which he arrived [op. cit. p. 257). 

 Unfortunately I had failed, prior to the publication of 

 this book, to appreciate a piece of information which had 

 long been in my possession, and accordingly I had omitted 

 to communicate it to the authors. Though it cannot be 

 doubted that the " King and Queen of the Auks,'' to use 

 what Bullock tells us was their local title, resorted to Fowls' 

 Crag as a resting-place, that island was really not the one 

 on which their breeding-place was situate ; but, as a memo- 

 randum, written in the autumn of 1858 by the late Mr. John 

 Wolley*, shows, the breeding-place, as I have elsewhere 

 stated (Diet. Birds, p. 307, note 1), must have been on 

 the Holm of Papa Westray, a small island lying to the 

 eastward of the larger one, from which it is separated by a 

 comparatively narrow and shallow sound, and well described 

 by Mr. Buckley {ut supra, pp. 21, 22). How Wolley became 

 aware of this fact I cannot explain, for I have met with no 

 other record of itf; but that his information was correct I 

 do not for a moment doubt, as it is now confirmed by my own 



* Wolley's memorandum is headed " Questions conceinino- the Great 

 Auk in the Holm of Papa Westra," and consists of a carefully-prepared 

 catechism to be submitted, through Mr. Hughes of Borrowstoneness, to 

 the then Mr. Traill of Papa Westray. The meagre results of these 

 enquiries have already been given by Messrs. Buckley and Harvie-Brown 

 {op. cit. pp. 247,248). 



t He possibly had it verbally from Salmon, who was on the Holm of 

 Papa Westray in 1831 (Mag. Nat. Hist. v. pp. 418, 420). 



