104 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



curves downward and has certain grooves running obliquely 

 across. It is shown by the picture also that the front part of 

 the head a little above the beak is marked with a white spot, 

 if the painter has made a faithful representation. Clearly 

 also its legs are short and black, its feet are also black and flat 

 in shape as is the manner of web-footed animals, it has three 

 claws and a short spur such as ducks have." 



On page 367 Clusius gives a further reference to a bird 

 which may or may not have been the Great Auk, but as it is 

 described as a Goirfugel, i.e., Gar ef owl, the translation of 

 the passage is here included. 



" Another bird is the Goirfugel, in the colour of its body not 

 dissimilar to the Alka though much bigger in the body. Its 

 beak is very broad and curved ; its head inclined to be long 

 and black, its eyes at the edges are tinged with a white vein. 

 Its feet are black and of no use for walking on, nor indeed 

 are its wings of any help to the bird, they are so very slender. 

 As a matter of fact it has never been seen either to walk or 

 fly. But indeed the bird is very rarely seen at all — never 

 in fact but in particular years. As to where it breeds no one 

 has discovered. This species I should also be inclined to 

 classify among the Divers." 



The next author to mention the Great Auk is Johannes 

 Eusebius of Neiremberg, who reproduces the figure of Mergus 

 Americanus from Clusius but omits that author's account, 

 and gives no distinctive description of the bird in his own text. 



In 1665 Olaus Wormius, the Hellenist, produced his cele- 

 brated work, on page 300 of which he gives the best of all 

 the early descriptions of the Great Auk, and on page 301 he 

 figures the well-known picture of the bird (here reproduced), 

 one of the most remarkable features about this excellent 

 representation being the white ring shown round its neck, 

 which was no doubt intended to represent an artificial 

 attachment, either as Professor Steenstrup suggests {cf. 

 Symington Grieve, p. 74) for the purpose of bearing a name 

 or description, or probably, as Wormius kept the bird alive 

 in captivity, for the purpose of tethering it. 



Wormius curiously enough gives his own description of 

 the Great Auk under the title of " Anser Magellanicus seu 

 Penguinis," and after quoting the account of the South 



