467 



XXXTX. — The Gaue-fowl and its IIiSTORiANa. 



(l.) Et BiDRAG til GeIBEUGLENS NaTUEHISTOEIE OG StERLIGT 

 TIL KUNDSKABEN OM DENS TIDLIGERE UdBREDNINGSKREDS. Af 



J. Jap. Sm. Steenstrup. Kjol^nhavn : 1857. (Naturh. Eoren. 

 Vidensk. Meddelelser. 1855. Nos. 3—7.) 



(2.) Abstract of Mr. J. "Wollet's Eesearches in Iceland re- 

 specting the Gare-fowl, or Great Auk (Alca impennis, Linn.). 

 By Alfred Newton. The Ibis, 1861, pp. 374—399. 



(3.) Ueber Flaitfus impennis, Bruenn. Von William Prayer. 

 Journal ftir Ornithologie, 1862, pp. 110—124, 337—356. 



(4.) Ueber das Aussterben der Thierarten in piitsiologischer 



T7ND NICHT PnTSIOLOGISCHER HlNSICHT, &C. Von K. E. V. 



Baer. Bulletin de 1' Academic Imperiale de St. Petersbourg. 

 Tome YI. pp. 513—576. 

 (5.) Description of the Skeleton of the Great Aue:, or Gar- 

 fowl, (Alca impennis, i.) by Professor Owen. Transactions of 

 the Zoological Society of London. Vol. V. pp. 317—335. 



Some twenty years ago no one, except in a select circle of ornitho- 

 logists, would have had the courage to utter the name of the Great 

 Auk. It is ten to one that anybody in general society mentioning 

 such a bird would have been taken for an aspirate-murdering cockne}^ 

 and the subject of his remark supposed to be some large Falconine. 

 Now-a-days this is all changed. Alca impennis has found its way 

 into works of fiction, such as the Water Babies, and the Travels of 

 TTnibra, and has even penetrated into the columns of Punch and The 

 Times, so that there are few persons of ordinary information wlio 

 have not some notions of its nature and peculiarities. Yet, as we 

 shall presently try to show our readers, the general knowledge con- 

 cerning this singular bird is extremely defective, and we find even 

 zoologists of the highest reputation making a curious succession of 

 blunders when they treat of its history. 



In Mr. Yarrell's account of this species — first published in De- 

 cember, 1842— it is properly enough termed, " a very rare British 

 Bird," but no hint of its probable fate is conveyed to the reader, as 

 indeed need not much be wondered at, for the exterminating process 

 is generally one that excites little or no attention until the doom of the 

 victim is scaled. Purthcrmore, as natiu'alists, almost without exception, 



