THE GARE-rOWL AND ITS niSTOllIAlS'S. 487 



long some one may have tlie enterprise to do so. We must remarlc 

 that the fact of the bird not being met with oftener is really no 

 valid objection to our theory that it does still exist, when we reflect 

 that, of the millions of the allied species which every summer resort 

 to the " bird-cliffs " of the north to breed, an almost infinitesimally 

 small proportion is ever seen at any other period of the year, even 

 by those who occupy their business among the great waters. We 

 do not attempt to explain the why and the wherefore of this — 

 perhaps as our knowledge of the peculiarities of the Mid-Atlantic 

 increases, we may be better able to gWe a satisfactory account of the 

 fact — but so it is. In former days, when "Penguins" were abundant 

 about Newfoundland, they seem to have passed southward along the 

 coast in winter, and thus we find Catesby, in the early part of last cen- 

 tury (jff/s^. Carol. App. p. xxxvi.) including the species as an occasional 

 visitor at that season to the shores of Carolina, but w^e can well 

 imagine a settlement of, at most, some few hundreds existing for 

 years on such spots as the Geirfugladrangr or the Virgin Kocks, 

 without even a straggler coming across the path of the few sea- 

 faring men who would appreciate the value of the meeting. This 

 belief we confess to fondly cherishing — we cannot yet bring our- 

 selves to address our old friend the Grreat Auk, in the tender w^ords 

 of Milton :— 



" Aye me ! whilst thee tlie shores and sounding seas 

 Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurl'd. 

 Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, 

 Where thou perhaps, under the whelming tide, 

 Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world." 



Whether however the species be extinct or not, the fate of the 

 Gare-fowl has still much interest. If it still exists, its doom will 

 probably be sealed by its re-discovery. For all practical purposes, 

 therefore, we may speak of it as a thing of the past, and regarded 

 in this light the subject becomes even more than ii^eresting, because 

 owing to the recent date of the bird's extirpation (whether completed 

 or not), we possess much more information respecting the extermi- 

 nating process, than we do in the case of any other extinct species. 

 Without drawmg any overstrained inferences, we see how the 

 merciless hand of man, armed perhaps, only with tlie rudest of 

 weapons, has diiven the Gare-fowl, first from the shores of Denmark, 

 and then from those of Scotland. At a later period it has been 

 successively banished from the Orkneys, the FaDroes and S. Kilda. 



