SEA-BIRD NUMBERS AND MAN 7I 



St. Kildans]," he writes, "they know not where, for a course of years. 

 From what land or ocean it makes its uncertain voyages to their isle, 

 is perhaps a mystery in nature." After MacAulay's visit the only 

 certain records of great auks at St. Kilda are two: one was taken at 

 Hirta in the early summer of 1821 and kept alive until August. In 

 this month it was being taken to Glasgow by ship; near the entrance 

 to the Firth of Clyde it was put overboard, with a line tied to its 

 leg for its daily swim, and escaped. Another was found on Stac an 

 Armin, the highest rock-stack in the British Isles (though no doubt 

 the auk got ashore at the shelving corner), in about 1840, and was 

 beaten to death by the St. Kildans L. M'Kinnon and D. MacQueen 

 as they thought it was a witch. Obviously it had been a generation 

 or more since any St. Kildan had seen a garefowl. 



The existence of the great auk in the Isle of Man is indicated by 

 a picture of an adult in breeding plumage standing on a ledge on the 

 Calf of Man, drawn by Daniel King, probably in 1652. Williamson 

 (1939), who draws attention to this earliest British depiction of the 

 bird, comments that there is no parallel indication in contemporary 

 Manx literature that the great auk inhabited the Calf. It is quite 

 possible that it may have bred, though this of course is not proved ; 

 there are suitable low rock-shelves on the Manx coast on which it could 

 have hauled ashore. 



In Orkney one pair certainly bred in 181 2. It is not at all certain 

 that the great auk had previously been a regular breeder at Papa 

 Westray (the place of the 181 2 nest), or anywhere else in Orkney. 

 The site in 181 2 was in a recess low down on the Fowls Craig on this 

 island. The female was killed with a stone while sitting on her egg. 

 In 1813 the male was also killed; it was shot by the native Willy 

 Foulis for William Bullock, the collector, having lived on the ledge 

 after the death of its mate. The natives called them the King and 

 Queen of the Auks (Buckley and Harvie-Brown, 1891). 



So much for the great auk in Britain; the last of all, except for 

 St. Kilda's 1840 'witch,' was an odd bird which was found at the en- 

 trance to Waterford Harbour in Ireland in 1834, was kept alive for 

 four months on potatoes, milk, and trout, and which is now in the 

 museum of Trinity College, Dublin. 



The early historians of the Faeroe Islands, Ole Worm (1655), 

 who died in 1654, and Lucas Debes (1673), both knew the great auk 

 and handled live specimens caught in the islands. J. K. Svabo (1783) 

 who was in the islands in 1781 and 1782, records the capture of a 



