1 12 Recent Notes on the Great Auk. [Sess. 



cruiser Grampus, under the command of Captain J. W. 

 Collins, now in charge of the Bureau of Statistics and 

 Fisheries Investigation in the United States, visited the Bird 

 Eocks in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and also Funk Island, 

 off the Newfoundland coast. A most interesting account of 

 the visit to the Bird Kocks, from the pen of Captain 

 Collins, appeared in 'The Boston, Mass., Herald,' 2oth 

 July 1887, and there appears to be little doubt that they 

 are the islands referred to by Jaques Carthier as the islands 

 of Margaulx. 



When the Grampus reached Funk Island, a landing was 

 effected by the osteologist of the expedition, Mr Frederic A. 

 Lucas, and a party. They were successful in obtaining a 

 large quantity of Great Auk remains. Writing me on 9th 

 August 1888, Mr Lucas says: "I have finished the count of 

 Auk humeri, and find that we have 1424, so that we have 

 representatives of at least 712 birds. This does not include 

 about one and one-half cubic foot of earth containing bones in 

 situ which will not be disturbed. And yet, with all this, we 

 can make up only ten or twelve skeletons." Through the kind 

 permission of Professor G. Brown Goode of the United States 

 National Museum, Washington,' Mr Lucas has been able to 

 favour me with photographs of the skeleton of the Great Auk 

 in the Museum, and also of some remains collected by the 

 Grampus expedition. To both these gentlemen I desire to 

 tender my best thanks. Mr Lucas has already contributed 

 two valuable and interesting papers upon the Great Auk, 

 resulting from his recent investigations. I have already 

 repeatedly quoted from one of them which appeared in ' The 

 Auk,' vol. v.. No. 3, July 1888, pp. 278 to 283. The other 

 will be found in ' The Popular Science Monthly,' August 

 1888, pp. 456 to 464. In this paper he gives a most par- 

 ticular description of Funk Island and its skerries. He tells 

 about the places where a landing can be effected, and also the 

 exact position of the island on which the Great Auk remains 

 are found. He mentions that undoubtedly the Great Auks 

 were slaughtered on Funk Island, and did not die natural 

 deaths, as many of the crania are fractured, and one skull 

 bears evidence of the stroke of a knife. 



The only unrecorded British bone of Alca imjJmnis, so far as 



