70 SEA-BIRDS 



When Martin Martin (1698), tutor to the son of the islands' 

 laird, the MacLeod of MacLeod, arrived at St. Kilda in June 1697 

 he wrote a classic and accurate account of its natural history, which 

 included this: 



"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 AVings short, flies not at 

 all; lays its Egg upon the bare Rock, which, if taken away, she lays 

 no more for that year; 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 Regard to any wind, appears the first of May, and goes 

 away about the middle o^ June.^^ 



We quote this in full, as it is really a most remarkable and con- 

 vincing description. As we explain elsewhere (p. 268) the interval 

 between the first of May and the middle of June is about seven weeks, 

 the combined incubation and fledging period of the great auk's 

 closest surviving relative, the razorbill. The description also otherwise 

 fits the bird perfectly. Martin arrived at St. Kilda on i June 1697 

 by the calendar of his day, which would be 1 2 June by our present 

 calendar. If great auks had actually been breeding on one of the 

 islands (Soay would have been the most likely) in that year it is almost 

 certain that he would have been shown them by the inhabitants, and 

 made some comment thereon in his careful notes: as it is his passage 

 that we have quoted reads very much as if the information in it had 

 been taken from natives who themselves had seen the bird nesting and 

 remembered it clearly, but not from Martin's own observations. 

 From this we conclude that the great auk nested at St. Kilda not in 

 1697, but within the memory of some alive in that year, i.e. most 

 probably in the second half of the seventeenth century; we can also 

 conclude from the account that its eggs were sometimes taken. The 

 M'Kenzie information for c.i 682 also suggests breeding in this period. 



The great auk appears to have been seen at St. Kilda occasionally 

 after Martin's visit. The notes of A. Buchan, who was minister on St. 

 Kilda from 1705 to 1730, respecting the bird derive from Martin; 

 but Kenneth MacAulay (1764) who was on the island for a year in 

 1 758-59, alludes to irregular July visits (not every year) by the great 

 auk; he did not see one himself. "It keeps at a distance from [the 



