114 THE GREAT AUK. 



In the Slimmer of 1813, a vessel from Faroe was becalmed 

 off the Geirfugi Skjaer, at Eeykianes. The crew, observ- 

 ing the rocks close by to be free from surf, put out their boat, 

 and, landing on the islet, found on it a number of Great Auks. 

 Of these birds they knocked down with their sticks, and secured, 

 between twenty and twenty-five individuals, and drove the 

 rest into the sea. One of the birds was taken alive, and brought 

 to Bishop Vidalin at Eeykiavik, who had the specimen stuffed, 

 and sent it to a friend in England. The others, I regret to 

 say, Avere sold on the spot, and eaten. In the succeeding year 

 (1814), seven of these birds were killed by a peasant at Lautrum 

 bird-cliffs, on the north-west coast of Ireland. They had 

 scrambled on to the low ledges at the foot of the bird-cliff, 

 and were there overtaken by their captors. One of them, before 

 it was taken, bit a boy so severely through the sleeve of his 

 calf-skin jacket, that the blood ran down his arm. 



The farmer on the Westmann Islands informed Faber, that 

 about the year 1800 he caught the only bird of this species he 

 had ever seen, at the bottom of the cliffs on those islands. It 

 was sitting on its egg, which he correctly described to Faber as 

 being nearly equal in size to that of the Wild Swan, and in 

 form and colour exactly resembling that of the Razor-bill. 



In 1823, two Great Auks were killed on a low rock, near 

 the trading station of Q^^iebakke, on the southern coast of 

 Iceland. 



In 1830 and 1831, not less than twenty-seven siDccimens 

 were obtained on the Eeykianes habitat; and from that time 

 till 1840, about half a score were obtained in the same locality. 



The last birds taken in Iceland were a j^air, male and female, 

 which were shot in 1844 at their nest, on a little islet near to 

 Eeykianes. 



Of the Great Auk's appearance in our own British seas 

 during the present century, there have been but very few 

 instances indeed. Beside the specimens obtained in Orkney 

 by Mr. Bullock, one was captured in 1822, in St. Kilda; and 

 the most recent instance on record is that of a specimen now in 

 the Dublin University Museum, which was taken in May, 1834, 



