IO4 *SV- Kildafrom Without. 



from St. Kilda landed on a neighbouring rock, the 

 Stack-au-Armine. Half way up the Stack they found 

 a strange bird. 



" Prophet-like that lone one stood " 



the last of his race. One of the three men caught 

 it by the neck, while the others tied its legs. For 

 three days it was kept alive, but on the fourth day a 

 storm sprang up, and it was sentenced to die as a 

 witch. Solitary, and misunderstood, the bird fought 

 hard to save a species from extinction, biting nearly 

 through the ropes that tied it, and was not killed until 

 it had been "beaten for an hour with two large stones." 

 An Auk's egg was sold by auction in Stevens's Rooms, 

 in 1888, for 225. It would be curious to see what 

 Lauchlan Mackinnon, who, if living, still would be 

 little over 80, could now get for such a captive, well 

 advertised for sale, alive. 



Most of the early writers mention, as a charac- 

 teristic of the " Gair Fowl," a " hatching spot a bare 

 spot," that is, writes Martin, " from which the feathers 

 have fallen off with the heat in hatching." The pecu- 

 liarity is noticed in its Gaelic name, " An Gerrabhal," 

 translated by Mr. A. Carmichael, " the strong, stout 

 bird, with the spot." 



The presence of " the spot " on the breast of the 

 Great Auk is the more worth noting, as a story told 

 by earlier travellers of a nearly allied bird, one of the 

 Great Penguins of the Southern Hemisphere, but not, 

 perhaps, very generally believed, has lately been found 

 to be true. 



The bird has between its legs a fold of bare skin 

 and muscle, hidden under the breast feathers, forming 

 what is practically a perfect pouch, in which it can, 



