THE G ARE-FOWL AND ITS HISTORIANS. 473 



Gare-fowl in this locality. Mr. John M-^Oillivray, who visited the 

 Outer Hebrides in 1840, was informed that the bird was by no means 

 of uncommon occurrence about S. Kilda, but that none had been 

 known to breed there for many years past, and that the " oldest 

 inhabitant " only recollected the procuring of three or four 

 examples. 



In 1812, the enterprising Mr. Bullock went on a collecting expe- 

 dition to the Orkney Islands, and according to the statement of 

 Montagu, published the following year, he was told by the natives 

 that " one male only had made his appearance for a long time, which 

 had regularly visited Papa Westra for several years. The female 

 (which the natives call the Queen of the Auks) was killed just before 

 Mr. Bullock's arrival. The King, or male, Mr. Bullock had the 

 pleasure of chasing, for several hours, in a six-oared boat, but with- 

 out being able to kill him, for though he frequently got near him, so 

 expert was the bird in its natural element, that it appeared impos- 

 sible to shoot him. The rapidity with which he pursued his course 

 under water, was almost incredible." {Orn. Diet. Appendix.) Latham 

 adds to the story that the bird " was sufficiently familiar with the 

 boatmen about those parts, but would not admit of his [Bullock's] 

 coming, as a stranger, within gun-shot, though in their company, but 

 afterwards suffering the boatmen, by themselves, to approach so near, 

 as to knock it down with an oar." (^Gen. Hist. Birds, vol. x. pp. 56, 57.) 

 Bullock having left the island, the specimen was sent after him ; and 

 at the sale of his museum, 5th May, 1819, it was bought by Dr. 

 Leach, for the sum of £15. 5s Qd, and deposited in the National 

 Collection.* Another account furnished us by a relative of the lady 

 who transmitted the bird to Bullock, states that one of the two which 

 about this time frequented the " Auk Craig," on Papa AYestra, wa» 

 killed by some boys or lads with stones, and that it was not got at 

 at the time, but sometime afterwards washed on shore. The excellent 



speaking (Charlesworth's Mag. N. H., i. p. 362) of a specimen procured in 1829^ 

 to which we shall presently refer, says : " Professor Jameson suggests that it might 

 have been one which had been obtained by Mr. Stevenson in St. Kilda, and escaped 

 from the light-house keeper of Pladda, about that time, on its way to Edinburgh. 

 (^QQ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Oct. 1831./' We cannot discover- 

 that Prof. Jameson ever published a line on the subject, certainly not in the number 

 of the Journal to Avhich reference is made. 



♦ The British Museum, in 1856, obtained from the collection of Professor Van 

 Lidth de Jeude a second example. This, thougli marked on its stand " Labrador," 

 was procured from the Royal Museum, of Copenhagen, whither it was sent from, 

 Iceland subsequently to 1830. 



N.H.R. — 1865. 2 K 



