256 The Great Auk. [Sess. 



Hamilton, B.A., and I am indebted to Professor Alfred New- 

 ton of Cambridge for kindly sending me his copy of this 

 paper to take my notes from. 



Having read in the notice in the ' Irish Naturalist ' that 

 the bones of Alca impennis had been identified by Mr E. T. 

 Newton of the Geological Survey, I wrote that gentleman 

 asking him to oblige me with further information. He kindly 

 replied from the Geological Survey Office, London, on 26th 

 March 1897, saying: " The bones of the Great Auk which I 

 saw were the humeri, but as to the numbers that were found 

 I have no information." Mr Newton, however, kindly sent 

 me the address of the discoverer of the bones, Mr W. J. 

 Knowles, Flixton Place, Ballymena. In reply to my inquiries, 

 that gentleman wrote me on 29th March 1897: "I only 

 found remains of Alca impennis at Whitepark Bay, County 

 Antrim. The bones, as far as they have been identified, are 

 humeri. I may have others of different parts of the bird, and 

 not know them. I have found bones, I should say, of ten or 

 more individual Auks." 



"Writing me again on 5th April 1897, Mr Knowles says: 

 " I have counted the bones which are now in my possession, 

 and I find I have two right and two left humeri that are 

 perfect and the upper half of a right humerus. I have also a 

 shaft without either end, which I believe belongs to the same 

 bird. I gave either two or three bones to the Royal Irish 

 Academy, but whether they were right or left I cannot tell, as 

 I took no note. When I sent a second lot of bones to Mr 

 Newton for identification, he asked me for a specimen, which 

 I gave him. I have his notes before me, and I find that he 

 retained a right humerus. The bones I have are exactly like 

 those figured by you in one of the papers you sent me, both 

 as regards marks and size. As for the number of birds those 

 bones would represent — say three to the E.I.A., one to Mr 

 Newton, and five or six in my own possession — we would 

 have at least five individuals, but more likely seven or eight, 

 or more, as, except in one instance where I found two humeri 

 near each other, and I don't remember whether they were 

 right or left, the others were all found apart. I have still 

 some bones that have not been professionally examined, and I 

 may find other bones than humeri among them. 



