PELECANID.^. 213 



driven from the coast by storms, and had fallen in 

 the street from exhaustion. 



Great Auk {Alca impennis). The following 

 extract, referring to the appearance of the Great 

 Auk in Buckinghamshire, must be accepted cum 

 grano salis. It is copied verbatim from the third 

 volume of Yarrell's ' British Birds,' but it is solely 

 in deference to the high authority of that naturalist 

 that it is reprinted in the present work : — 



*Mr. Bullock told Dr. Fleming some years ago 

 that a specimen was taken in a pond of fresh 

 water two miles from the Thames, on the estate of 

 Sir William Clayton, near Marlow, in Buckingham- 

 shire.' 



That a bird of such thoroughly oceanic habits, and 

 with wings so rudimentary as to be useless for flight, 

 should be found so far inland as stated, seems, if not 

 physically impossible, at all events highly improbable. 

 I have no doubt that the species was misnamed, and 

 tliat the bird really captured was, in all probability, 

 one of the Divers — either the Great Northern or 

 the Black-throated Diver. I need hardly add that 

 all endeavours to trace a * Great Auk,' or to gain 

 any further particulars respecting it, have proved 

 utterly unsuccessful. 



