'34 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



following week, and left no doubt that, like its congeners, the blackness of the 

 throat- feathers of summer is exchanged for white during the winter season" 

 ("Edinburgh Philosophical Journal"). It is rather uncertain what became of this 

 bird. One account says that it escaped, and it is supposed that it afterwards died 

 and that its body was cast ashore at Gourock. 



A Great Auk was captured alive in Waterford Harbour, in May, 1834, by a 

 fisherman who, by throwing sprats to it, attracted it within reach of a landing 

 net. It was kept alive for some time, and after its death was preserved and is 

 now to be seen in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Another bird is said 

 to have been obtained about the same time, but it was not preserved. 



Wallace (in a work published in 1769) mentions a Penguin, a curious and 

 uncommon bird, taken alive at the island of Farn " a few years ago," which grew 

 so tame and familiar that it would follow its owner, with its body erect, to be fed. 



There is a story about a man called M'Queen and two other men capturing 

 a Garefowl on Stack-an-Armin, off Borera, in the St. Kilda group, about 1840. 

 Lauchlan M'Kinnon, the survivor of the three men, questioned by Mr. H. Evans, 

 of Jura, recognized at once a picture of the bird, remarking upon the little wings, 

 and the white spot on the side of the head. He said the bird kept its great bill 

 open very long and often, " as if it would never shut its bill again." This last 

 is a curious point, for I have remarked that the Razorbill (the Great Auk's near 

 relation) has a habit of sitting with its beak open. Donald M'Queen, who caught 

 the last undoubted Scotch Great Auk in 1821, died in 1880, aged 73. A Great 

 Auk is said to have been found dead near Lundy Island, in 1829. Full particulars 

 of this occurrence, and of a tradition of this bird having formerly bred on the 

 island, are to be found in Messrs. D'Urban and Mathew's " Birds of Devon." 



Some other occurrences of the Great Auk off our coasts have been recorded ; 

 but it is doubtful if any of them are authentic. One is said to have been 

 obtained on the long strand of Castle Freke, in the west of Co. Cork. Two are 

 said to have been seen in Belfast Bay on the 23rd of September, 1845. One was 

 seen off Fair Island, Orkney, in June, 1798, and two birds believed to have been 

 Great Auks (although it is very unlikely that they were) were shot off Skye, in 



1844- 



Mr. J. E. Harting has recorded ("The Field," 1889) that there is in the 

 Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, a stuffed specimen and one egg, of 

 a dirty white, marked with three or four dark blotches at the larger end, labelled 

 " Cotes d'Ecosse." 



Remains of the Great Auk have been found in Caithness, on Oronsay, one 

 of the Southern Hebrides ; at Whitburn Sands, Durham ; and in the north and 



