1887-8S.] Recent Notes on the Great Auk. 95 



endeavour to treat the subject in as connected a form as 

 possible, I intend first to refer to some matters in connection 

 with 



THE GREAT AUK OR GAREFOWL WHEN LIVING. 



In my work on this bird already mentioned (p. 62), I refer 

 to the last notice of the occurrence of the Great Auk in the 

 north-east of England, and perhaps it may be interesting to 

 give you the original reference, which occurs in ' The Natural 

 History and Antiquities of Northumberland, and so much of 

 the county of Durham as lies between the rivers Tyne and 

 Tweed, commonly called North Bishoprick.' In two volumes, 

 by John Wallis, A.M. : published in London, 1769. In vol. 

 i. p. 340 is the following : " The Penguin, a curious and un- 

 common bird, was taken alive a few years ago in the island of 

 Farn, and presented to the late John William Bacon, Esq. of 

 Etherston, with whom it grew so tame and familiar that it 

 would follow him with its body erect to be fed." You will 

 observe that the name used in the above quotation for the 

 Great Auk is the " Penguin," which was one of its most 

 common names, especially on the shores of North America, 



The capture of what are believed to have been the last two 

 Great Auks took place at Eldey at the beginning of June 

 1844, and the dead birds were sent by Hansen, the purchaser, 

 to Herr MoUer, the apothecary at Eeykjavik, to be skinned. 

 In a note at p. 21 of my book, I quote a letter of Professor 

 J. Steenstrup of Copenhagen, in which he says that " the only 

 claim this person had to be called an apothecary was that he 

 prepared skins." After my book was issued, the venerable 

 professor wrote me saying he was sorry there had been a mis- 

 understanding as to his meaning in the letter referred to, and 

 he adds, " Certainly my friend MoUer was a good apothecary 

 in every sense, but he also skinned birds extremely well." 



In the ' Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 at Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass.,' vol. xiii. — " The Water- 

 Birds of North America," by S. T. Baird, T. M. Brewer, and R. 

 Pddgeway, issued in continuation of the publications of the 

 Geological Survey of California, vol. ii. p. 471, published at 

 Boston, U.S., 1884 : Little, Brown, & Co., — there is the follow- 

 ing : " In a work on ' Newfoundland and its Missionaries,' 



