ALCIDvE - THE AUKS - I'LAUTUS. 



469 



currents and the tempestuous (iharacter of the locality, of ilangorous approach. The 

 outer island of all, and the one on which these birds are supposed to have chiefly 

 abounded, was formerly one of the most considerable of the chain ; but in 1830, after 

 a series of submarine disturbances, it entirely disappeared. Other rocky islets exist 

 in this chain more distant from the shore. I'rofessor Newton found in the public 

 library of Reykjavik a manuscript account of this outer island — the former habita- 

 tion of this Auk — in which, in one of tiie accompanying notes, a very accurate de- 

 scription is given of the bird itself and of its peculiarities, as also of its egg. This 

 manuscript is supposed to have been Avritten somewhere about the year 17G0. Three 

 authors are cited, who refer to the former abundance of this bird on these islets, one 

 of them stating that the people had often tilled their boats with the eggs. There was 

 also abundant evidence derived from parties still living as to the existence of these 

 birds during the present century. In 1.S07, during the hostilities between England 

 and Denmark, a privateer that had plundered the Fariies and Reykjavik visited these 

 islands and made the most wholesale slaughter of the Auks. Again in 1810, the 

 inhabitants of the Fariies, being reduced almost to starvation by the war, made an 

 excursion to Iceland, on which occasion these islands were again invaded, and this 

 bird subjected to a murderous attacjk. It is probable that these two wholesale mas- 

 sacres so very nearly exterminated the Auks that they never recovered from their 

 effects. Faber mentions that seven of these birds were killed in 1814 on a more 

 northern islet. In 1821 the same writer visited their usufil breeding-place, but met 

 with none of them ; and it was supposed that they all had been destroyed by a party 

 of French sailors who had recently visited the islands. The birds had not then, 

 however, been quite exterminated, as that very season others were seen and killed, 

 proof of these statements having been obtained by Professor Newton. There was 

 also reliable evidence of the capture of an example of this Auk in 1 828. 



In 1830, the year in which the main islet disappeared beneath the waves, an 

 inhabitant of Kyrkjuvogr visited the high rock which stands between the sunken 

 island and the cape, and in two excursions obtained about twenty specimens of this 

 bird ; and in the following year as many as twenty -four of them were taken, one of 

 which was brought off alive. Again in 1833, and also in 1834, more of these birds 

 were captured on the same rocky islet, as well as several eggs, most of which were 

 sold to a dealer in Hamburg. A few more were afterward taken in 1840 or in 1841. 

 The last of these birds known to have been procured in Iceland were two killed in 

 1844. A drawing of one of these was made by a French artist, which in 1860 was 

 hanging in the shop of an apothecary in Reykjavik. 



These last specimens of the Auk were taken by a party of fourteen men in an 

 excursion to one of these rocky islets, now known as Eldey. This island is a precipi- 

 tous stack, perpendicular nearly everywhere, and seventy fathoms in height at its 

 loftiest point, but with a gradual slope on one side from the sea to a considerable 

 elevation. Here is the only landing-place, and farther up is the spot where the l)irds 

 made their home. Two Auks were seen among the numberless other rock-foAvl, and 

 were at once pursued. They did not show the slightest disposition to repel the 

 invaders, but immediately ran along under the high cliff, with their heads erect and 

 their little wings extended. They uttered no cry of alarm, but moved with short 

 steps about as fast as the usual gait of a man. One bird was driven into a corner, 

 and there captured ; the other secured just on the edge of the precipice, over the 

 water. Both were strangled ; and their bodies are now in the Museum of the 

 University of Copenhagen. One egg was found, but it was broken. 



Professor Newton was informed that within the recollection of many persons now 



