N. F. TICEHURST: REMAINS FROM ORKNEY. 311 



(torn, cit.) give it as their opinion that the Great Auk was- 

 always a rare bird in Orkney, and that it only inhabited 

 one island, viz.. Papa Westray, and it would be futile to 

 argue from a single bone that it was otherwise, or even a 

 native of the mainland at all. A single bird might easily 

 have wandered to Holm Sound or Scapa Flow, and been 

 killed in the neighbourhood by the dwellers of the Broch, 

 or it might have been brought for food from a distance 

 by boat. 



As to the date of these remains, very little seems to be 

 known, but the Brochs appear to have been used as fortified 

 dwellings at the time of the Norse invasion in the ninth 

 century (cf. Mr. Watt's paper cited above) . 

 . For help in identifying some of the more difficult bird 

 bones I desire to express my indebtedness to Mr. W. P. 

 Py craft, of the British Museum. 



For similar and more important remains of the Great 

 Auk in the British Islands, reference may be made to the 

 following : — 



St. Kelts in Caithness, Oronsay in the Southern Hebrides, 

 and Whitburn Lizards in co. Durham ; Symington Grieve, 

 " The Great Auk," p. 43 and seq. 



In CO. Waterford, E. J. Ussher, "Irish Naturalist,"" 

 1897, p. 208, and 1899, p. 1. 



