I.— RECENT NOTES ON THE GREAT AUK OR 



GAREFOWL {ALGA IMPENNIS Linn.) 



By Mr SYMINGTON GRIEVE, President. 



{Read Nov. 23, 1SS7.) 



I PRESUME you are all more or less acquainted with Great 

 -Auk history, and that none of you are under the belief I am 

 about to address you regarding the sayings and doings of some 

 Eastern potentate. It is not the first time that I have found 

 persons who should have been better informed making such a 

 mistake. They seemed determined to confound this poor bird 

 with some ancient or modern human ruler, like the Great 

 Mogul or the Khan of Khiva. However, in case there should 

 be any one present who has forgotten the salient points of 

 Great Auk history, I shall very briefly recapitulate some of its 

 principal features, so as to present before your minds a few of 

 the facts that make all that is known about this bird so in- 

 teresting to every naturalist. 



The Great Auks were large birds, and were good for food. 

 They were so abundant at certain points on the coasts of the 

 North Atlantic basin, that they attracted the attention of the 

 early voyagers. Their wings were so small that they were 

 unable to fly. At the nesting-season each year they landed 

 in immense multitudes at the places at which they hatched 

 their single egg, and fell an easy prey to such an enemy as 

 man. The Great Auks may be said to have been stupid 

 birds. They were not easily frightened, and allowed them- 

 selves to be massacred by the mariners, who knocked them 

 over by striking them upon their heads with short sticks or 

 clubs. At an island off the coast of Newfoundland, and pro- 

 bably at other places, they even permitted themselves to be 

 driven across planks or sails stretched from the vessels to the 

 shore. In this way such multitudes were captured that they 



VOL. II. o 



