GREAT AUK. 481 



specimen of this bird which was picked up dead near 

 Lundy Island in the year 1829, which Professor Jameson 

 suggested might have been the one which had been ob- 

 tained by Mr. Stevenson in St. Kilda, and which had 

 escaped from the Light-house keeper of Pladda. Lastly, 

 Mr. W. Thompson states that one of these birds, taken in 

 1834, off the coast of the county of Waterford, was pre- 

 sented by Dr. Robert Burkitt to the collection in Trinity 

 College, Dublin. 



These are the notices I am acquainted with in refer- 

 ence to the appearance of the Great Auk near the British 

 Islands. It is said to be very rarely seen out of the water, 

 and the female lays her single large egg close above the 

 sea-tide mark. The egg measures four inches ten lines 

 in length, by two inches and nine lines in breadth ; it is 

 of a soiled white colour, tinged with yellow, blotched and 

 streaked, principally over the larger end, with black. 



M. Nilsson says this species is very rare in Sweden and 

 Norway. In a volume of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, 

 containing a historical and descriptive account of Iceland, 

 Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, it is said, page 405, 

 " The Great Auk, which is the size of a Goose, used for- 

 merly to be found in these countries. In Landt's time it 

 had, however, become scarce, and at present is almost 

 unknown even by name. According to Graba, none have 

 been seen in Greenland, Iceland, or Faroe of late years." 

 No specimen was obtained by our Arctic voyagers upon 

 either of the Northern expeditions. The specimen repre- 

 sented by Edwards, plate 147, was obtained at sea, over a 

 fishing bank, about one hundred leagues from Newfound- 

 land. Mr. Audubon says, "Mr. Henry Havell, brother of 

 my engraver, when on his passage from New York to Eng- 

 land, hooked a Great Auk on the banks of Newfoundland, 

 in extremely boisterous weather. On being hauled on 



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