50 THE GREAT AUK 



conjecture seems to be that they had a common 

 ancestor who differed in some degree from both, but still 

 one would think that common ancestor must have had 

 the power of flight. Such natural enemies as that 

 common ancestor (or the Eazor-bill for the matter of 

 that) possessed may be roughly divided into 2 categories : 

 enemies in the air or on land, and enemies in the water. 

 Now in the water, wings to an Alcine bird are chiefly 

 useful for steering (the propelling power being in the 

 legs) and a very little bit of wing would do to steer with, 

 and escape from a grampus or seal (?). In the air a wing 

 must be very good to be good for anything, if not it is 

 better not to fly at all (witness Wollaston's Madeiran 

 Coleoptera). Natural selection would soon weed out 

 animals with moderate wings and leave those that had 

 the best or the worst. On land I take it the Gare-fowl 

 had practically no enemies till man came to civilise him. 

 I don't say these views satisfy me, there may be 

 considerations I have altogether overlooked, but I think 

 they may serve as indications of something like the way 

 it was done.* 



During the last years of his life he spent a few weeks 

 of almost every summer on board the yacht of his 

 friend, Henry Evans, of Derby. Most of their cruises 

 were in Scottish waters, and it was the keenest delight to 

 him to visit the former breeding-places of the Great Auk. 



May 13, 1898. 



I am off on June 17th for another cruise in Henry 

 Evans' yacht. I want to stop at the Holm of Papa 

 Westray and see the slope on which the King and Queen 

 of the Auks used to hold their court.f 



And a few weeks later 



We had a most glorious day on the Holm of Papa 



* Letter to Col. H. W. Feilden, July 27, 1885. 



f The last Orcadian Great Auk was killed in 1812, and is now in the 

 British Museum. 



