98 Recent Notes on the Great Auk. [Sess. 



group of islands. I know every rock there, and I think it impossible St 

 Kilda can ever have been a great breeding-place of the Great Auk. 



The following are the details referred to above : — 



The Great Auk at Borera, St Kilda, about 1840-43. 



Lauchlan M'Kinnon, now aged 75, tells me that, with his fatlier-in-law 

 and Donald M'Queen, he caught and killed a Gairfowl on Stack-an-Armin. 

 He dates the event at about forty years ago. Donald M'Queen 's son also 

 says it was aboi;t forty years ago, or perhaps a year or two more. Lauch- 

 lan M'Kinnon is the only survivor of the three men. I know him quite 

 well : he appears as bright and sharp as any man in St Kilda. He recog- 

 nised at once as the Gairfowl a picture of the Great Auk I showed him. 

 He especially called attention to the little wings for so large a bird, and to 

 the white spot on the side of the head, which he remembered was on the 

 bird. He spoke much of the great bill the bird had, which he said it kept 

 open very long and often, " as if it would never shut its bill again." He 

 also put both hands to his sides, and said the bird was very fat and fleshy 

 there. The three men were fowling on Stack-an-Armin isle, off Borera, 

 St Kilda, when they found this bml, which they caught sleeping. Tliey 

 tied it by the legs behind the bothy on Stack-an-Armin, where they stay a 

 week or ten days at a time fowling. They kept it alive for three days, 

 then killed it with a stick, thinking it must be a witch. It was left to 

 decay. 



In answer to my further inquiries, Mr Evans wrote me from 

 Jvira Forest on 24th October 1885, as follows: — 



I think it is hopeless to search for remains of the Great Auk killed on 

 Stack-an-Armin about 1840, but I asked the natives to look. I shall not 

 see them before June 1886, but you may be sure we shall get nothing 

 there. 



In August 1886 I wrote Mr Evans, asking him kindly to 

 let me know the result of the search for the Great Auk bones, 

 and he replied from Jura Forest on the 26 th September fol- 

 lowing : — 



The bones of the Great Auk could not be found — it was very unlikely. 

 I heard more on the same subject, and it all confirms what I have already 

 told you. 



Mr Evans refers to Donald M'Queen, who died in 1880, 

 aged 73, who caught the last undoubted Scotch Great Auk in 

 1821. An obituary notice of him, written by Mr J. Sands, 

 appeared in the ' Glasgow Herald' of 14th June 1886. 



At p. 6 9 of ' The Great Auk ; its History, Archaeology, and 

 Eemains,' reference is made to a Great Auk said to have been 



