BRITISH BIRDS AND BIRD LOVERS. 183 



existence of all who inhabit the country. British ornithology 

 is often regarded as a stationary science which occasionally 

 rejoices over the shooting of a rare bird. To show its pro- 

 gressive character, one or two curious problems may be men- 

 tioned, which, it was hoped, would be solved by the last Arctic 

 Expedition. The great auk (Alca impennis), though possessing 

 in past years a fair right to be included among British birds, 

 has been long extinct in our islands. Its existence elsewhere 

 may even be questioned. If still inhabiting our planet it is 

 rigorously confined to regions high up in the Arctic Circle. 

 There is no certain English specimen of the bird now existing, 

 although some seventy examples of it may be found in English 

 collections, and of two or three of these there is little doubt 

 that they were blown ashore on our coasts. It may be inte- 

 resting to gather up the most recent notices of this very rare 

 bird in our islands. Probably the last that has been seen in 

 English waters was picked up dead near Lundy Island in 1829. 

 Thompson* states that one was obtained on the long strand of 

 Castle Freke (in the west of the County of Cork) in February, 

 1 844, having been watersoaked in a storm. It is not stated 

 whether this bird was dead. Again, the same author states he 

 had " little doubt that two great auks were seen in Belfast Bay 

 on September 23, 1845, by H. Bell, a wild-fowl shooter. He 

 saw two large birds the size of great northern divers, but with 

 much smaller wings. He imagined they might be young birds 

 of that species until he remarked that their heads and bills 

 were 'much more clumsy' than those of the Colymbus glacialis. 

 They kept almost constantly diving, and went to an extraordi- 

 nary distance each time with great rapidity." All this exactly 

 answers to what is known of the great auk with its curious 

 rudimentary wings. Probably one of the last eggs taken is in 

 the collection of Canon Tristram. It was found in 1834 at 

 Gier-fugleshier, on the south coast of Iceland. The last notice 

 * Nat. Hist, of Ireland, III. p. 239. 



