64 alcidj:. 



ally to sport in the water, with a cord fastened to one of its 

 legs, to prevent escape. Even in this state of restraint it 

 performed the motions of diving and swimming under water, 

 with a rapidity that set all pursuit from a hoat at defiance. 

 A few white feathers were at this time making their appear- 

 ance on the sides of its neck and throat, which increased 

 considerahly during the following week, and left no room to 

 doubt that, like its congeners, the blackness of the throat- 

 feathers of summer is exchanged for white during the winter 

 season " (Edinb. Phil. Journ. x. p. 96). It has been 

 stated, although upon insufiicieut evidence, that this bird 

 afterwards escaped. 



In May, 1834, a Great Auk was taken alive at the mouth 

 of Waterford Harbour by a fisherman named Kirby, who 

 noticed the bird swimming about near him, and by tossing 

 sprats to it, attracted it within reach of a landing-net, with 

 which he secured it. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., states, upon 

 the authority of notes from Dr. Burkitt, who subsequently 

 obtained this example, that the details as given by Thomp- 

 son are inaccurate, and the following appear to be the facts : 

 — The immediate purchaser of the bird was Mr. Francis 

 Davis of Waterford, who presented it to Dr. Burkitt in Sep- 

 tember, some days after its death, and but for the fact that 

 the late Capt. John Spence, 89th Regiment, saw the bird at 

 Mr. Jacob Goff's of Horetown (where he happened to be 

 on a visit), and bespoke it for Dr. Burkitt in case it should 

 die, it would probably have been lost to science, instead of 

 being, as it now is, one of the treasures of the Museum of 

 Trinity College, Dublin. Thompson's statement that "it 

 frequently stroked its head with its foot," should read : — 

 " This Auk stood very erect, was a very stately-looking bird, 

 and had a habit of frequently shaking its head in a peculiar 

 manner, more especially when any particularly favourite food 

 was presented to it " (Zool. s.s. p. 1449). 



The above appear to be the only authenticated instances 

 of the capture of the Great Auk in the British Islands 

 within the present century. These have been doubled by 

 confused statements in various works ; and there arc also 



