The Zoologist — November, 1868. 1449 



Gatcombe of his having once seen the great auk on the rocks in the 

 Plymouth Sound, addiug that it looked like a child with a white 

 apron on. This happened one very stormy day; the time of the year 

 Mr. Gatcombe could not ascertain, but of course great auks do not get 

 on rocks in whiter. 



The account of the great auk taken at the entrance of Waterford 

 Harbour, printed in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' and 

 reprinted in the ' Birds of Ireland,' is very inaccurate, as various notes 

 from Dr. Burkitt enable me to show. In these publications it is 

 recorded that " On the 7th of September, 1834, Dr. Burkitt, of Water- 

 ford, received a Great Auk from Mr. Robert Davis, jun., of Clonmel, 

 who stated that it was taken in the (preceding) month of May (by the 

 fisherman of whom he purchased it), at a short distance from the 

 shore, at the mouth of Waterford Harbour, off Ballymacan. According 

 to the captor, it was apparently almost starved. When in his yawl 

 off the coast, he saw the auk swimming about near him, and held out 

 some sprats, for which it came close to the boat. It was taken with 

 little difficulty." 



Now, here we have an instance of the dependence to be placed on 

 second-hand information. It was presented to Dr. Burkitt by the late 

 Mr. Francis Davis, of Waterford, and not by the individual named in 

 Thompson's book (now deceased). 



The auk was dead for some days before it came into Dr. Burkitt's 

 hands ; he did not see it alive, his notice of it, as sent to Mr. 

 Thompson, and in a great measure as it appears in his book (vol. iii. 

 pp. 238 — 9), being furnished by two individuals — Mr. Davis, who for- 

 warded it to him, and who, being the immediate purchaser of it from 

 its captor, was able to afford many important particulars, both from 

 the fisherman and from his own observations ; the second, the late 

 Captain John Spence, 89th Regiment, who in fact, seeing the bird at 

 Mr. Jacob Goff's, of Horetown (where he happened to be on a visit), 

 considerately bespoke it for Dr. Burkitt's collection should it die : 

 thus, through his instrumentality in all probability it was saved. 



The account says, " It was taken with little difficulty." This may, 

 however, have been only that the bird was so little acquainted with 

 man. Latham states the Papa-Westra great auks to have been very 

 familiar with the boatmen ; and we cannot tell where this individual 

 may not have wandered from ; but its being enticed in this manner 

 by a few sprats (which were thrown to it, and not held out, as 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. III. 3 I 



