184 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



of it which has reached civilisation from the Arctic regions is 

 that Mr. Hayes was told by the governor of the Danish settle- 

 ment of Godhavn in Greenland that " one had recently been 

 seen on one of the Whale-fish Islands. Two years before one 

 had been actually captured by a native, who being very hungry 

 and wholly ignorant of the value of the prize he had secured, 

 proceeded at once to eat it, much to the disgust of Mr. Han- 

 sey " (the governor), " who did not learn of it until too late to 

 come to the rescue."* This happened in 1869. The great 

 auk seems but too surely following the wingless dodo and moa. 

 The type is as unfitted for the present age as would be the 

 plesiosaurus in the valley of the Thames. 



From these distant speculations it is pleasant to return to the 

 ornithologist's study, where, surrounded by the ensigns of his 

 craft, sits our theorist, 



" In regions mild, of calm and serene air, 

 Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 

 Which men call earth. " 



His bookcases groan under the volumes of Yarrell, McGillivray, 

 Gould, and a multitude more written by men like Gray or 

 Saxby, who have devoted their lives to illustrate the bird-life of 

 some particular British province. Binocular, microscope, and 

 materials for taxidermy litter the table by the sunny window- 

 seat. One pair of Royston crows, converted into feather 

 screens, such as Egyptian mutes might wave in one of Mr. Alma 

 Tadema's pictures, hang over the fireplace. This bird is so 

 destructive to game, bearing in every point a character as black 

 as its own head, that it is ruthlessly excepted from the general 

 amnesty a true bird lover proclaims to every other bird that 

 visits our shores. A few very few choice birds, excellently 

 stuffed, occupy some glass-cases ; the bulk of the ornithologist's 

 collection is in the form of skins, each neatly dated and labelled 

 with mystic signs, which are as Abracadabra to the uninitiated. 

 * J. J. Hayes, Land of Desolation, p. 291. 



