lOO Recent Notes on the Great Auk. [Sess. 



Reno, on which the great bird-cliffs (Fuglevar) are. It is two English 

 miles broad, and has a strong current. The shore of Eeno is flatter than 

 that of Homo, though on it also breed a great quantity of birds, chiefly 

 mews {Larus argentatus, marinus, and canus). The bird-clift", properly so 

 called, is on Horno, and on its terraces are the nesting-places chiefly of 

 the Fratercula, Alca, Uria, and the two species of Phalacrocorax. Herr 

 Brodtkorb had for the present, however, given up sport, because the 

 attention of every one on the little Arctic seaport was taken up with the 

 whale-fisheries. In a letter dated Vardo, December 31, 1883, Herr Brodt- 

 korb writes me as follows : " It is exactly so as Herr Nordvi has told you, 

 that in April 1848 I shot near Vardo a strange bird, the like of which I 

 never saw before nor since. ... I was rowing on that day with some com- 

 panions over to Reno, when we espied in the strait iowr large birds that 

 attracted our notice. One of my companions, Herr Wind, now Tensmand 

 Wessel, asked me to fire at them, in order by that means to learn exactly 

 what sort of birds these could be which, instead of flying, only paddled 

 upon the water with their wings. I fired, and one fell. We were all per- 

 fectly convinced we had never before seen that kind of bird. It was the 

 size of a Ringgaus.^ Its back was black, and, so far as I can remember, 

 its whole head and neck were of that colour, but in other respects it was 

 in shape like an Auk. I remember particularly that we observed a white 

 spot at the eye on the side of the head. On the other side the ball, which 

 had gone through the head, had torn away a piece of the white spot and 

 shattered the beak, so that as regards the form of the beak I can tell 

 nothing. The wings were so small that we were all agreed that this cir- 

 cumstance was the reason why the bird only paddled. . . . The bird was 

 placed in the boat in order that it might be kept ; but when we reached 

 land, it was so soaked through with water and blood that we threw it 

 away upon the shore, though it was my intention to examine it afterwards 

 more minutely. But when I went to get it on the following day, it had 

 been washed away by a high sea during a storm in the night. ... A day 

 or two later I was out again to seek for the remaining three birds ; but I 

 never found them. I remember, likewise, that several fishermen had 

 taken notice of these birds before I shot the one referred to ; but subse- 

 quently they were never seen again." 



On the receipt of this letter I wrote to Herr Brodtkorb asking him to 

 inform me as to any observations he might have made on the nature, 

 voice, &c., of this bird. To these questions he replied as follows, in a letter 

 dated Vardo, February 27, 1884 : " On the day when I shot the bird a 

 storm was blowing from the south, so that there was rather a heavy sea. 

 The birds were swimming right against the wind, and as we were rowing 

 in the same direction, we got a sight of ihem, when they were about 

 twenty-five yards straight in front of the boat, without flying up. In 

 swimming they used both wings and feet, and also dived, but did not stay 

 long under the water. It almost seemed as if they only went through the 

 tops of the waves (" som om de nasten blot gik gjennem Bolge Top- 

 pene "). The birds kept together, and did not seem afraid. We also heard 



The Ringgaus is the Bcrnicla brenia. 



I 



