248 BIRDS. 



"HOLLAND HOUSE, 1st Nov. 1858. 

 "F. N. Hughes, Esq. 



" MY DEAR SIR, I was duly favoured with yours of 

 10th August and 20th September, and should have answered 

 them long ere this, but I was very busy with the harvest, and 

 had not time to make inquiries about the Great Auk. 



"I have now to inform you that there are several people alive 

 who remember them quite well. The one was shot by a man 

 belonging to this island in 1812, in the Auk Craig, as it is called 

 here, and an aunt of mine had it skinned, and gave it to Mr. 

 Bullock, and I believe it is now in the British Museum. Some 

 boys or lads afterwards killed the other in the craig with stones ; 

 but it was not got at the time, but I believe drove on shore 

 some time afterwards, but so much decomposed that it was quite 

 useless. Your friends must be in a mistake about their not 

 flying, as they could not get to the cliff in the craig without 

 doing so. 1 I believe these were the last of them, and that they 

 are now extinct, as that pair was the only ones seen for many 

 years before. . . . This is all I can give you upon the subject, but 

 if your friends choose to visit Orkney I shall be very happy to 

 see them here, when they may be able to pick up some more 

 information. Hoping you will excuse me for not answering you 

 sooner, I remain, my dear Sir, yours very truly, 



"THOMAS TRAILL." 



It may be observed that there is a discrepancy between the 

 date of the killing of the birds given by Mr. Traill in his letter 

 and that of Bullock himself in his Catalogue, and in the Appendix 

 to the Supplement of Montague's Ornithological Dictionary. No 

 doubt Mr. Traill is correct in his details, but after the lapse of 

 nearly half a century, we should prefer to consider the dates, as 

 given by Mr. Bullock at the time, more correct than those given, 

 after such a long interval, by Mr. Traill. 



In 1812, there was only one bird known, as told us by 



1 As will subsequently be seen, the place in the craig was not easily accessible 

 at low water, but from other accounts as well as this, it would appear that the 

 Great Auk can manage to scramble up places that would appear quite inaccessible 

 to a non-flying bird. 



