BIRDS. 251 



resting) place, and this old man's memory seemed vague and 

 uncertain, we passed on thinking little more of it." 



" But again, coming back, at a point a little further north, or 

 nearer the Mull Head, we said 'good day' to a big, burly, 

 bluff, curly-haired farmer, well clad in moleskin trews, and 

 more like a well-to-do south countryman about fifty-four or 

 fifty-five years of age, possibly a little more. His speech, how- 

 ever, and his general features, proved his Scandinavian origin, 

 as also did his name James Hourston (he was particular 

 about the r in his name). He afterwards told us that his 

 brother and himself were the only men in Papa who 'fished 

 none.' He owned or rented a farm of seventeen and a half 

 acres. After a time I led up to the subject, saying we had 

 been to photograph the cliffs; and casually mentioned 'the 

 big bird shot many years ago.' At once his face brightened 

 np, and he said promptly, and with an interested and broad 

 grin, ' Oh, ay ; the King o' the Aaks ; yes, indeed, and I 

 kent the man mysel' who shot it,' and then, pointing to a small 

 house close to the shore, he added : ' and he died down in that 

 wee housie close on the bay.' He then pointed towards the 

 Fowl's Craig in a N.E. direction, and proceeded to describe 

 minutely the ' last resting-place of the Great Auk in life,' and 

 the very spot which had for some time harboured it, before it 

 was shot by William Fowlis. He very accurately described 

 the place, so well indeed that I may say that I identified it 

 distinctly and unaided later in the day. After a little further 

 talk he volunteered to take us round in a boat ' and if ye '11 

 tak' an oar, I '11 dae 't tae.' Delighted, I said, ' Come along,' 

 and off we started." 



"We reached the shore, ran the boat down the inclined 

 natural rocky slip, launched her, put in the camera, and rowed 

 round the intervening low point, and along the Fowl's Craigs 

 which are, apart from the special interest, very particularly 

 well worth a visit and survey from the seaward side. ..." 



"James Hourston now desired that I should myself identify 

 the place he had described, as we slowly rowed along within 

 three boat-lengths of the cliff-foot the last resting-place of 

 ' the King o' the Aaks.' Close to the north end of the range 



