452 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



DETACHED BONES. 



Denmark 10 (or 11 ?) individuals 



Norway 8 (or 10 ?) " 



United Kingdom 13 ' < 



United States 7 individuals 



Total 38 (or 41?) 



Germany 8 



Belgium 2 



EGGS. 



France 7 



Holland... .. 2 



Denmark 1' 



Total... ...65 



United Kingdom ...41 



Switzerland 2 



United States 2 



"Therefore," concludes Professor Newton, "the existence is 

 recorded of 71 or 72 skins, 9 skeletons, detached bones of 38 or 

 41 different birds, and 65 eggs." A summary which shews that 

 Britain possesses the largest share of these interesting relics of a 

 by-gone species. 



I cannot conclude this very imperfect history of the Garefowl 

 as a Scottish species, without referring to the highly important 

 services rendered to the cause of ornithology by Professor Newton, 

 through the publication of various papers, daring the last ten years, 

 on the past history of the species. The first of these, entitled 'An 

 abstract of Mr J. Wolley's researches in Iceland, respecting the 

 Garefowl or Great Auk,' was published in the Ibis for 1861; a 

 second, being 'Remarks on the exhibition of a natural mummy of 

 Alca impennisy appeared in the proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London for 1863; a third, also a contribution to the 

 Ibis, appeared in that magazine for April, 1870, and contains a full 

 record of all existing remains of the bird so far as could be 

 ascertained ; while a fourth, and perhaps the most interesting of 

 all, on * The Garefowl and its historians,' reviewing five different 

 publications on the subject, was published in the 'Natural History 

 Review' for 1865 (pp. 467, 488). It is impossible to praise too 

 highly the scientific ability shewn in these ornithological contribu- 

 tions; and it is to be hoped that their distinguished author may 

 shortly publish the entire history in a collected form. Year after 

 year is passing away without the slightest intelligence being received 

 which can excite even a hope of the bird being yet alive; and a 

 subject so significant as the death of a species within the recollec- 

 tion of naturalists whose cabinets contain the remains of all that 

 future zoologists can hope to investigate, is too important to be 

 treated by other than the ablest hands. In one of the papers 

 enumerated, the last gleam of hope is thus tenderly alluded to : 

 " In former days, when 'penguins' were abundant about Newfound- 



