GREAT AUK. 441 



in a state bordering upon starvation may be proved from the fact 

 of so many hundreds even thousands, resorting to estuaries, 

 heedless of danger and contrary to their usual shyness. The 

 testimony of the fishermen at various places shewed that the 

 common dog-fish was unusually abundant, while the small herring 

 fry and other fishes constituting the food of sea-birds had entirely 

 disappeared. Favouring the hypothesis of death by starvation, 

 Mr Eobertson observed that no trace of organic disease could be 

 found on examination, and that, moreover, an epidemic does not 

 attack indefinitely, but is confined to one species the prominent 

 symptoms of which, viz., disturbance of organic functions, loss of 

 appetite, etc., being opposed to what had been observable in the 

 birds an empty stomach, keen appetite, heedlessness of danger 

 to secure food, tameness, feebleness, and death occurring at the 

 extreme point of emaciation in other words, the universal 

 symptoms of hunger. The mortality, therefore, not being confined 

 to one species as is constantly the case in epidemic diseases, and 

 which have been known to occur in other sections of the animal 

 kingdom, the author of the report stated his belief that it was 

 attributable to the extreme scarcity of food, causing an emaciation 

 resulting in death.* While it is borne in mind that the solan goose 

 and the larger species of gull birds of vagrant habits and 

 possessing strong powers of flight were exempt, there need be 

 little hesitation in accepting Mr Robertson's solution of what was 

 at the time regarded as a remarkable and mysterious visitation. 



THE GREAT AUK. 



ALGA IMPENNIS. 

 An Gearbhul. 



No bird has received so much attention of late years as the now 

 extinct Garefowl or Great Auk. Every item of information, 

 however meagre, from the brief records of Sir George M'Kenzie 

 of Tarbat, and Sir Robert Sibbald, published in, and previous to 

 1 684, to the equally brief announcement of the discovery of the 

 remains of two Garefowls in a kitchen midden on the coast of 



* See Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, vol. i., p. 4, 

 from which this abstract of Mr Robertson's remarks has been reprinted. 



