446 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



that many considerate people begin to question the continuance of 

 its existence upon earth. It has not been known to breed along any 

 of the shores of Continental Europe for towards a hundred years, 

 and although as recently as Landt's time it was still seen in Iceland, 

 Graba informs us that it is now unknown there, and has not been 

 observed or heard of, either in Greenland or the Faroe Islands, 

 for many a day. None of our own assiduous northern voyagers 

 ever met with it, and although known in St. Kilda by the name 

 of Gairfowl (Geirfugl of the Icelanders), it has now ceased to 

 frequent that lonely isle. Martin says, 'heflyeth not at all.' 1 ' 



The most recent authentic instances of its occurrence may be 

 briefly mentioned. The late Mr Bullock, while visiting the Ork- 

 neys in 1813, discovered a male bird, called by the natives King 

 of the Auks, off Papa Westra, and pursued it unremittingly for 

 many hours in a six-oared boat, but such were the rapidity and 

 perseverance of its courses under water that he was completely 

 foiled, and finally gave up the chase. This individual was, 

 however, obtained after his departure, and is now in the British 

 Museum. A female, the supposed mate of the preceding, had 

 been procured in Orkney a few weeks before Mr Bullock's arrival, 

 but her remains were not preserved. Dr Fleming, while taking a 

 cruise in the autumn of 1821 with the late Mr Robert Stevenson 

 in the lighthouse yacht, obtained a live specimen of the Great 

 Auk at Scalpa (Isle of Glass), which had been captured sometime 

 before off St Kilda. It was emaciated and sickly, but improved 

 in condition in a few days, in consequence of being well supplied 

 with fresh fish, and permitted to sport occasionally in the water, 

 being secured by a cord attached to one leg. Even in this 

 trammelled state, its natural movements while swimming or 

 diving under water were so rapid as to have set all pursuit at 

 defiance had the bird been free.* As it was, its love of liberty 

 eventually proved stronger than the cord by which that liberty 

 was restrained, for during a subsequent washing, with which it 

 was considerately favoured, off the island of Pladda, to the south 

 of Arran, it burst its bonds, and was seen no more for ever. 

 Many years afterwards a dead specimen was found floating in the 

 sea off the isle of Lundy, on the coast of South Devon. Some 

 have fondly fancied that this may have been Dr Fleming's 



* ' Edinburgh Philosophical Journal/ Vol. X., p. 96. 



