68 ALCID^. 



of the Great Auk during the past three centuries. That it 

 frequented the coast of Denmark in prehistoric times is shown 

 by the discovery of its remains in the kitchen-middens of 

 Jutland and Zealand, and there is even some evidence of its 

 occurrence there so late as the beginning of the present 

 century. In Scotland, Dr. Smith has described and figured 

 the remains obtained in the middens of Caithness ; some 

 bones were recently discovered on the Island of Oronsay in 

 Argyllshire (J. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 479) ; and it is stated 

 (N. H. Tr. Northumb. vii. pp. 361, 363) that remains of this 

 bird were found in 1878 in some old sea-caves in the Cleadon 

 Hills, Durham. In America its bones have been disinterred 

 from the middens of Maine. 



As regards the specimens of the Great Auk still existing 

 in collections, various lists have from time to time been pub- 

 lished by Professor Newton and others ; the former tells the 

 Editor that he estimates their number at seventy-seven skins 

 or mounted birds, and there are sixty-nine egg-shells. In 

 general coloration the latter resemble those of the Razor-bill, 

 but some of them exhibit a distinctly green tinge, and an 

 approach to the scrolling of the Guillemot; average measure- 

 ments, 4'9 by 2-7 in. 



In summer plumage the bill is black, very strong, com- 

 pressed, and marked with several lateral furrows ; the irides 

 reddish-brown ; between the beak and the eye an oval patch 

 of white ; head, chin, and throat, hind neck, back, wings, 

 and tail black; the ends of the secondary wing-feathers 

 white ; breast, and all the under surface of the body white ; 

 legs, toes, and their membranes black. The whole length 

 of the bird is thirty-two inches ; the wing from the wrist to 

 the end of the longest quill-feather seven inches ; of the 

 longest feather alone but four inches and a quarter. 



Dr. Fleming's specimen had the chin, throat, and front 

 of the neck white. Fox, in reference to the specimen in the 

 Tunstall collection of the Newcastle Museum, says, '' Our 

 bird is apparently a young one, the neck black, spotted, 

 or mottled with white ; upper mandible of the bill with one 

 large sulcus at the base, none at the tip " (Synopsis, p. 92). 



