52 THE GREAT AUK 



Then there is also this consideration ; do these rocks 

 afford a place for a flightless bird to run up a slope, or 

 even scramble over a not too high ascent to a place where 

 she might lay her egg out of the reach of the waves ? On 

 Eldey the available space must have been small, and not 

 over big on the sunken Gare-fowl skerry, though I have 

 no means of computing what the area was in either case. 

 On Holm of Papa Westray, supposing that I was right 

 in determining the place, there was room for scores, not 

 to say hundreds, and on Funk Island for millions. 



If your Irish locality could accommodate a score it 

 would have been quite a creditable place, but I should 

 think that unless it lodged as many the people would 

 hardly have found it worth visiting for plunder. About 

 all these matters you must use your own intelligence. 

 You know how Razorbills and their like behave, and you 

 must make allowance for a bigger sort bereft of flight.* 



The extinct and disappearing faunas, especially of 

 oceanic islands, had a peculiar attraction for him, and 

 among other birds in which he took the greatest interest 

 was the Dodo. By the fortunate circumstance of his 

 brother Edward, himself an accomplished ornithologist, 

 having been appointed Assistant Colonial Secretary of 

 Mauritius in 1859, he had exceptional opportunities of 

 acquiring specimens of the Dodo of Mauritius and the 

 Solitaire of Rodriguez. In 1865 the British Association 

 appointed him with Mr. Tristram and Dr. P. L. Sclater 

 to be a " Committee for the purpose of assisting Mr. 

 E. Newton in his researches for the extinct Didine birds 

 of the Mascareen Islands, and to report thereon at the 

 next meeting of the Association ; and that the sum of 

 50 be placed at their disposal for the purpose." The 

 results of these inquiries were published in several 

 papers in the Reports of the British Association and 

 Proceedings of the Zoological and Royal Societies. His 



* Letter TO G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, May 18, 1907. 



