THE GAUE-TOWL AKD ITS HISTOBIANS. 471 



On the 1st June, 1697, " M. Martin, Gent/' landed on S. Kilda, 

 where he resided three weeks, and in his naive description of the 

 inhabitants of this isknd, feathered and featherless, remarks : — 



" The Sea-Fowl are, first, Gairfowl, being the stateliest, as well 

 as the largest Sort, and above the Size of a Solan Goose, of a black 

 Colour, red about the Eyes, a large white Spot under each, a long 

 broad Bill ; it stands stately, its whole Body erected, its "Wings short, 

 flies not at all ; lays its Egg upon the bare Eock, which if taken 

 away, she lays no more for that Tear ; she is whole-footed, and has 

 the hatching Spot upon her Breast, i.e. a bare Spot from which the 

 Feathers have fallen off with the Heat in hatching ; its Egg is twice 

 as big as that of a Solan Goose, and is variously spotted, Black, 

 Green, and Dark ; it comes without Eegard to any "Wind, appears 

 the first of May, and goes away about the middle of June^ 



Professor Steenstrup considers that this description of Martin's 

 bears the mark of being that of an eye-witness. But to us the point 

 seems not so certain. If he himself did see the Gare-fowl it was 

 probably only from a distance, or he would surely have never ima- 

 gined that the bird was " red about the Eyes." But, indeed, the 

 matter is of little importance. He lived long enough upon the island 

 to have obtained a very good account of it from the natives, and his 

 evidence with regard to most other subjects which we are still in a 

 position to test is extremely trust- worthy, more so probably than 

 the next we have to quote. This is from the ' History of St. Kilda,' 

 by Kenneth Macaulay, who, at the instance of the Christian Know- 

 ledge Society, passed the month of June 1758 upon the island. He 

 certainly did not see a Gare-fowl, but he mentions it as " an abso- 

 lute stranger I am apt to believe, in every other part of Scotland," 

 and then goes on to say that " The St. Kildians do not receive an 

 annual visit from this strange bird as from all the rest. It keeps at 

 a distance from them, they know not where, for a course of years. 

 Erom what land or ocean it makes its uncertain voyages to their isle 

 is perhaps a mystery in nature. A gentleman, who had been in the 

 West Indies,* informed me, that according to the description given 

 of him, he must be the Penguin of that clime, a fowl that points out 

 the proper soundings to seafaring People," 



"Whether the bird was even then beginning to show premonitory 



* It will of course be recollected that a hundred years ago the use of the term 

 West Indies " was not restricted to the Greater and Lesser Antilles. 



