Vol. XIXT j^^Y, Boues of the Great Auk in Florida. 2K1 



1902 J 



from the lower two-thirds of the heap. Prof. Hitchcock's excava- 

 tions were made about twenty feet distant from those of Prof. 

 Blatchley, and the bone which he secured was taken at the very 

 bottom of the heap and beneath eight feet of shells. It many be 

 added that the two humeri belong to the same side, the left. 



Much has been written about the distribution of the Great Auk. 

 Its existence on the coast of New England since the time of occu- 

 pation by white men appears to have been held in some doubt. 

 Prof. F. W. Putnam (Amer. Naturahst, III, 1869, p. 540) informs 

 us that its bones have been found in great numbers in the shell 

 heaps of Massachusetts as far south as Marblehead, Ipswich, and 

 Plum Island. He also presents some evidence to show that it 

 had occurred at Ipswich within perhaps a hundred years. Orton 

 states (Amer. Naturalist, III, p. 539) that Audubon wrote that it 

 had once been plentiful at Nahant. Alfred Newton, who has 

 made a most careful study of the history of the bird says (Ibis, 

 1861, p. 397) that in comparatively modern times its range 

 extended to Cape Cod. F. P. Hardy in a very interesting paper 

 (Auk, V, 1888, p. 2>^2>) quotes a passage from Archer's ' Account 

 of Gosnold's voyage to Cape Cod ' showing that among other birds 

 seen there by these voyagers in the spring and summer of 1602 were 

 "penguins," a name in those times often applied to the Great Auk. 

 Hardy concludes that these birds must have been breeding there 

 at that season. This writer also refers to Brereton's ' Account of 

 the voyage of Gosnold to Virginia,' in which it is stated that 

 " penguins " had been observed in that region. At what season 

 they were seen we cannot perhaps determine. 



Mr. Symington Grieve, of Edinburgh, who has written various 

 papers on the Great Auk, has, through Prof. Lucas, called my 

 attention to a passage found in Catesby's ' Natural History of 

 Carolina,' published in 1754. The passage is found in the appen- 

 dix to the second volume, p. xxxvi. Catesby gives there various 

 lists of animals observed by him. One of these lists is entitled 

 " European water-fowls which I have observed to be also inhabit- 

 ants of America, which tho' they abide the winter in CaroUna, 

 most of them return north in the spring to breed." In this list 

 occurs again the name "penguin." Although no considerable 

 importance has hitherto been attached to these statements regard- 



