488 THE NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW. 



Then too, a casual but natural event has accelerated its fate. The 

 eruption of a submarine volcano on the coast of Iceland by laying 

 low one of its chief abodes has contributed effectually to its destruc- 

 tion. But worse than all this has been the blow which on the 

 discovery of America came upon the portion of the race inhabiting 

 the Newfoundland islets, when it was brought suddenly face to face 

 with a powerful and hitherto unknown enemy, and where the result 

 has been what invariably happens, when a simple tribe of savages 

 used only to the primeval customs of its forefathers is all at once 

 confronted with invaders of the highest type of civilization — *' The 

 place thereof knoweth it no more." * 



In conclusion, we have to say, that we have left several collateral 

 branches of our subject — ' The Gare-fowl and its Historians ' — quite 

 untouched. Some of them are very interesting — especially that of 

 the etymology of the various names applied to Alca impennis, which 

 has perhaps more bearing on biology, than our readers might at first 

 be inclined to think — but we feel that enough has been said for the 

 present. Let us only submit that we are far from having exhausted 

 our theme. 



XL. — Zoological Museums. 



(1.) Eeturn to an Order of the Hon. the House op Commons 

 FOR Accounts of the Income and Expenditure of the 

 British Museum for the Financial Tear ended the 31st 

 DAT OF March, 1865, &c. together with a Statement of the 

 Progress made in the Arrangement of the Collections, and an 

 Account of the Objects added to them in the Year 1864. 



(2.) A Letter to the Trustees of the British Museum on the 

 Condition oT the National Collection of Inyertebrata. 

 By Philocosmos. London, Hardvvicke, 1865. 



(3.) Eapport Adresse a son Exc. le Ministre de l'Instruction 

 PuBLiQUE, par la Commission Instituee en Execution du decret du 



* The number of existing specimens of Alca impetinis, has by some writers 

 been greatly underrated. Of stuffed skins it is stated there are 63 or 64, of eggs 

 at least 59, (Ann. Nat. Hist. 3d. ser., vol. xiv. p. 393). Of osteological specimens 

 in addition to those mentioned in the text, there are only a few bones in the Royal 

 College of Surgeons. 



