ii2 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARV. 



pi. 620 (1880); B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 206 (1883); 

 Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iv. p. 61 (1884); See- 

 bohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 371 (1885); Saunders, Man. 

 Brit. B. p. 68 1 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xviii. 

 (1891). 



(Plate CF.) 



Adult in Summer Plumage. General colour above glossy black ; 

 wings like the back ; quills brownish black, the secondaries 

 tipped with white, forming a white bar ; tail also black ; head 

 and neck glossy black, like the back ; the throat rather more 

 brownish black ; under surface white, sharply denned from the 

 black of the back, ascending on to the throat and forming a 

 triangular patch ; sides of body dove-grey ; a large white patch 

 on each side of the head in front of the eye. Total length, 

 25*0 inches ; culmen, 3*6 ; wing, 6*0; tail, 3*8 ; tarsus, 1*8. 



Winter Plumage. As ill the Razor-bill, the throat is white in 



winter. 



Range in Great Britain. The Great Auk used to breed in 

 S. Kilda, but even by the middle of the last century the birds 

 had become very irregular in their visits.* A male and 

 female were killed at Papa Westray, one of the Orkneys, in 

 1812. The male bird of this pair is now in the British Museum. 

 In August of 1821 or 1822, Fleming records a specimen sent 

 to him from S. Kilda, and, according to the researches of 

 Mr. Henry Evans, a bird of this species was captured in the 

 same group of islands about the year 1840. That the Great 

 Auk formerly had a more extended range in ancient times 

 has been proved by the remains which have been found in 

 Caithness and Argyll, and even as far south as some old sea- 

 caves in Durham (cf. Saunders, Man. p. 682). Mr. Barrett- 

 Hamilton has collected the evidence of the existence of 

 Plautus impennis in Ireland, where Mr. W. J. Knowles has 

 found remains of the species on the coast of Antrim, along 

 with those of the horse, dog, or wolf, "in conjunction with 

 human remains believed to be those of the earliest Neolithic 



* For an epitome of the range and habits of the Great Auk, I am 

 indebted to a pamphlet written by Mr. Thomas Parkin, and to Mr. 

 Howard Saunders' " Manual." 



