448 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



long and apparently very complete list of the birds, forming the 

 concluding section: "Alca impennis, the Great Auk An 

 Gearbhul An individual of this very rare species, I was in- 

 formed by Mr Adam, was sent to him in Lewis. The late Mr 

 M'Neill, who was long tacksman of St. Kilda, informed me that 

 it occurred there at irregular intervals of two or three years ; but 

 I have not heard of its having been seen on the coast of the Outer 

 Hebrides." It is somewhat singular that Dr Macgillivray has not 

 inserted these particulars in his work on British Water Birds, 

 published in 1852. It may be said, indeed, that he has shown 

 considerable carelessness in his account of the Great Auk, as is 

 evidenced by his statement that a second specimen was obtained 

 at St. Kilda by Mr Murdo M'Lellan, in 1829 a record which 

 obviously applies to the bird mentioned in the preceding para- 

 graph of his work, the names of the individuals, and the fate of 

 the bird being identical with those associated with Dr Fleming's 

 specimen captured in 1822. In his 'Manual of British Ornitho- 

 logy,' Part II., p. 217 (1842), he alludes to the last-mentioned 

 bird only. 



No recent visitor to the island of St. Kilda appears to 

 have received any satisfactory information regarding the exist- 

 ence of the Great Auk there. There is not even the bare mention 

 of it in the ' Journal of an Excursion to St. Kilda,' published in 

 Glasgow in 1838, by L. Maclean a writer who furnishes an 

 interesting account of the birds on the authority of the then 

 resident clergyman, the Eev. Neil Mackenzie, who had been 

 there eight years; and Mr John Macgillivray, who visited 

 the island in 1840, was informed that though the bird was 

 by no means of uncommon occurrence about St. Kilda, none 

 had been known to breed there for many years past, and that the 

 " oldest inhabitant " only recollected the procuring of three or four 

 examples. Mr Elwes, who visited the island in H.M.S. " Harpy," 

 on 22d May, 1868, has the following remarks in a valuable paper 

 on the ' Bird Stations of the Outer Hebrides,' contributed to the 

 Ibis for 1869: "On landing, we were met by the minister, Mr 

 Mackay, who appeared very glad to see any one, as may well be 

 imagined. Strange to say, he did not seem to take any interest 

 in, or to know much about the birds, though he has been two 

 years among people whose thoughts are more occupied by birds 

 than anything else, and who depend principally on them for their 



