The Zoologist — Februarv, 1870. 2013 



record is that given by Audubon on page 316 of the fourth voUirae of 

 * OruiUiological Biography.' "The only authentic account of the 

 occurrence of this bird on our coast that I possess was obtained from 

 Mr. Henry Havell, brother of my engraver, who, when on his passage 

 from New York to England, hooked a great auk on the banks of New- 

 foundland, in extremely boisterous weather." This specimen was not 

 preserved. "When I was in Labrador," continues Audubon, " many 

 of the fishermen assured me that the ' penguin,' as they name this 

 bird, breeds on a low rocky island to ihe south-east of Newfoundland." 

 The present writer received similar assurances when in Labrador in 

 1860 — the place designated being the "Funks." Audubon also states 

 that " an old gunner residing on Chelsea Beach, near Boston, told me 

 that he well remembered the time when the penguins were plentiful 

 about Nahant and some other islands in the bay." 



Two specimens only are known lo exist in any American museum. 

 One is in the Philadelphia Academy ; its history is uncertain. The 

 other, in the Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, is the 

 original of Audubon's plate and descn])lion, as staled in the following 

 note from Prof. Sanborn Tenny, favoured in reply to questions 

 regarding it: "The great auk, presented to Vassar College by J. P. 

 Giraud, jun., Esq., is in a perfect state of preservation. This specimen 

 is the one from which Audubon niade his drawing, and it was pre- 

 sented to Giraud by Audubon himself. Neither Giraud nor myself 

 has further knowledge of it than what is contained in Audubon's 

 works." 



Concerning Mr. Audubon's specimen, Mr. Cassin remarks (B. N. A. 

 p. 901), that it was "obtained by him (Mr. A.) on the banks of New- 

 foundland;" upon which statement Mr, A. Newton (Ibis, Oct. 1862) 

 observes, "In 1857 I was assured by Mr. Bell, the well-known taxi- 

 dermist at New York, who knew Mr. Audubon intimately, that he 

 never possessed but one specimen of this bird; and if we turn lo 

 Prof Macgillivray's 'History of British Birds' (vol. v. p. 359), we find 

 him saying that he never saw but two examples of the species, one in 

 the British Museum, and ' the other belonging to Mr. Audubon, and 

 procured by him in London.^'''' This serves to throw some little light 

 on the history of the specimen now in the Vassar College, Pough- 

 keepsie, New York. 



In the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for 1864, p. 235, 

 is given, by Mr. Robert Champley, " a list of the present possessors 

 of the birds, skeletons and eggs of Alca impenuis;" this gentleman 



