1896-97-] The Great Auk. 255 



from the remains obtained from Funk Island by the United 

 States Grampus expedition in 1887. I have seen this skeleton. 

 It is mentioned on p. 515 of the Report of the United States 

 National Museum, Washington, 1887-88, by Mr Frederic A. 

 Lucas, that it was presented to the New York Museum. 



Washington, B.C. — My friend Mr Frederic A. Lucas, 

 Osteologist of the Smithsonian Institution, writes me on 31st 

 January 1897, that of the material obtained by the United 

 States Grampus expedition about twelve skeletons in all will 

 be built up. Of this number four have already been parted 

 with, which have gone to Cambridge (Mass.), New York, 

 Edinburgh, and Sydney, N.S.W., so that only eight skeletons 

 now remain at the Smithsonian Institution. Of the eight 

 skeletons, it is mentioned at p. 516 of the Eeport of the 

 United States National Museum, "Washington, 1887-88, by 

 Mr Frederic A. Lucas, that " two skeletons are retained for 

 the reserve series of the Museum." 



Detached Bones found in Iheland. 



Although the Great Auk as a living bird was previously 

 recorded from the coast of Ireland, it is only within the last 

 few years that the bones have been discovered in the sandhills 

 of Whitepark Bay, County Antrim. The discoverer, Mr W. 

 J. Knowles, points out that the old surfaces of the sandhills, 

 with their shells, broken bones, and implements, are really 

 kitchen-middens. 



Mr Knowles, in the ' Proceedings of the Eoyal Irish 

 Academy' (3), vol. i., No. 5, 1891, records the finding of two 

 humeri of the Great Auk ; and again in the same ' Proceedings ' 

 (3), vol. iii., No. 4, pp. 650-663 (Dec. 1895), mentions the 

 discovery of a number of bones in conjunction with human 

 remains, which Mr Knowles believes to be those of the earliest 

 Neolithic inhabitants of Ireland. Mr Knowles remarks that 

 " from the number of bones [of the Great Auk] which have 

 been found it must have been a common inhabitant of the 

 north of Ireland at the time when the people of the Stone 

 Age occupied Whitepark Bay and other parts of the coast." 



The foregoing information appeared in the ' Irish Naturalist ' 

 for May 1896, in a paper written by Mr G E. H. Barrett 



vol. in. s 



