108 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



For the following passage we are indebted to Mr. Miller 

 Christy's researches. In the Zoologist, 1894, p. 142, he 

 draws attention to John Seller's English Pilot, in the 

 seventeenth edition of which, and the fourth book, page 17, 

 appears together with two figures of Aka impennis, the 

 following passage : — 



" There is also another thing to be taken notice of by which 

 you may know when you are upon the Bank [of Newfoundland] 

 .... you may know this by the great quantity of fowls upon 

 the Bank, viz. Sheerwaters, Willocks, Noddles, Gulls, and 

 Pengwins, etc., without making any exceptions : which is 

 a mistake, for I have seen all these fowls 100 leagues off this 

 Bank, the Pengwins excepted . . . The Pengwins .... 

 are always on the Bank, several of them together . . . never 

 less than two . . . They are fowls about the bigness of a 

 goose, a coal-black head and back, with a white belly, and 

 a milk white spot under one of their eyes, which Nature 

 has ordered to be under the right eye ... for my part I 

 never saw any with such a spot under the left eye, the figure 

 of which I have here set down to facilitate the knowledge of 

 them." 



We must conclude these extracts with the following remarks 

 of George Edwards who, on page 147 of his third volume 

 under heading " The Northern Penguin," after an excellent 

 description of the bird, says : — 



" This bird I procured from the Master of a Newfoundland 

 fishing-vessel, who told me it was taken with their fish-baits 

 on the fishing-bank of Newfoundland .... This bird 

 hath already been figured and described : but the figure has 

 a ring round the neck in Willoughby which is not found in 

 the natural bird, and the descriptions are not clear, it is also 

 confounded with the Southern Penguins, and Mr. Willoughby 

 seems to think them and the Northern the same birds, but 

 I who have seen several both from the North and the South 

 .... should rather make them two distinct tribes of birds." 



In conclusion, we would refer those of our readers who 

 desire more information on this fascinating subject to the 

 MS. " Garefowl Book " of the late Professor Newton, now 

 in the Newton Library at Cambridge, a work which we hope 

 may some day be duly edited and published. 



