1 8 Lost British Birds. 



incredible. If a stop be not soon put to this practice the 

 whole breed will be diminished to almost nothing, particu- 

 larly the penguins, for this is now the only island they 

 have left to breed upon." 



It was quite time in 1785 to predict the speedy end of 

 that stupendous yearly massacre. As long back as 1540 one 

 of the early voyagers mentions the loading of his two 

 vessels with dead penguins in less than half-an-hour, and 

 states that besides what were eaten fresh there were four 

 or five tons of them to put in salt. At a later period, 

 when they were slaughtered for their feathers, the fat 

 carcases of the birds were used as fuel. These, and other 

 horrible and loathsome details about the manner in which 

 the poor birds were tortured to death by thousands to 

 make sport for the crews when no profit was to be made 

 by killing them, may be found in Mr. Symington Grieve's 

 elaborate quarto monograph, The Great Auk (1885). 



Here we are mainly concerned with the bird as a British 

 species. Its principal stations in recent times were St. 

 Kilda, Iceland, the Faroe and Orkney Islands. " From 

 similar causes to those which operated elsewhere," writes 

 the historian of this vanished species, " it gradually was 

 killed off, until in 1844, or possibly 1845, the last was heard 

 of the living Garefowl." 



With the opening words of Mr. Grieve's work this brief 

 note may fitly end : " The whole history of the Great Auk 

 is a sad one the continued slaughter of the helpless 

 victims, culminating in the final destruction of the race in 

 the skerry, named Eldey, off the coast of Iceland, excites 

 to pity. The last of the Great Auks has lived and died. 

 The race was blotted out, before naturalists, when too late, 

 discovered it was gone. Regrets are now useless the living 

 Garefowl is extinct." 



VIII. BED NIGHT-REELER Locustella luscinoides. The 

 English book name of this small bird Savi's Warbler was 

 borrowed from the Italian ornithologist who first described 



