The Zoologist — November, 1868. J443 



purchased the great auk for the British Museum, where any one may 

 still see it. 



Another account, furnished Professor Newton by a relative of the 

 lady who transmitted the bird to Bullock, states that one of the two 

 which about this time frequented the "Auk Craig" on Papa Westra 

 was killed by some boys with stones, and that it was not got at the 

 time, but sometime afterwards washed on shore (Nat. Hist. Review, 

 October, 1865). 



We are not to infer that a pair had frequented the Orkney Islands 

 from time immemorial : Fleming only considered it an occasional 

 visitant (Brit. Animals, p. 130), and Low, who lived prior to 1812, 

 states (Fauna Orcadensis, p. 107) that he has "often inquired about 

 the great auk especially, but canuot find it is ever seen here." 

 May not this pair of great auks have originally been driven by stress 

 of weather from the American coast ? The island of Papa Westra has 

 been visited by numerous ornithologists; many ornithological excur- 

 sions have been at different times made into those remote regions, and 

 there is a resident collector at Stromness ; yet the great auk has never 

 since been observed. We must therefore conclude that it ceased to 

 visit the Orkneys after the above-mentioned pair at Papa Westra were 

 destroyed : had such a remarkable bird been seen of late years it must 

 have created a sensation among the inhabitants of those islands ; as it 

 is they scarcely know the great auk even by tradition. One of these 

 great auks is recorded to have been observed off Fair Island, in June, 

 1798, and Dr. Hamilton, a native of Stromness, but who left for 

 America about eight years ago, told Mr. J. H. Dunn that about the 

 time when one of the pair at Papa Westra was shot for Mr. Bullock, 

 he saw a great auk in Hoy Sound, and chased it for some time in a 

 well-manned boat, but its wonderful power of diving long distances 

 prevented his ever getting within shot. 



Dr. Fleming has given an account of a great auk taken at St. Kilda 

 in 1821 or 1822, but which is said to have made its escape: in the 

 'Edinburgh Philosophical Journal' (vol. x. pp. 96, 97) he states that 

 " when on the eve of our departure from this island [Glass] we got 

 on board a live specimen of the great auk (Alca impennis), which 

 Mr. Maclellan, the tacksman of Glass, had captured some time before 

 off St. Kilda. It was emaciated, and had the appearance of being 

 sickly ; but in the course of a i'ew days it became sprightly, having 

 been plentifully supplied with fresh fish, and permitted occasionally to 

 sport in the water, with a cord fastened to one of its legs, to prevent 



