The Zoologist — November, 1868. 1451 



when in confinement. The printed account goes on to say that, 

 " when in Mr. Gough's possession, it was chiefly fed on fish, of which 

 fresh-water species (trout, etc.) were preferred to sea-fish (probably 

 because they could be had fresher) : they were swallowed entire. It 

 was rather fierce." 



In addition to the above particulars, of deep interest, since they are 

 the relics of a species soon to be forgotten, I am able to record, on 

 Dr. Burkitt' s authority, that the great auk, when alive, seemed to have 

 an aversion to water, — a very strange and unaccountable thing. When 

 dead it was stuffed by Dr. Burkitt, who is tolerably confident that the 

 sex was noted by dissection : he cured it with arsenical soap ; the 

 glass eyes are the exact colour that they were in life. The following 

 description was, at Mr. Thompson's request, supplied by Dr. Burkitt 

 at the same time as the particulars of capture which we have been 

 criticizing; and the author of the 'Birds of Ireland' would have 

 deserved the thanks of ornithologists had he preserved all these facts 

 with proper accuracy and minuteness : as year succeeds year, and 

 it becomes more certain that the great auk is extinct, we may well 

 be annoyed that those who had it in their power did not hand down 

 the fullest particulars : — 



" This bird — a young female — is not in good plumage ; the head, 

 back, wings, legs and feet, are sooty black; between the bill and eye 

 on each side of the head there is a large patch of white, mottled with 

 blackish feathers ; the neck is white, slightly mottled with black ; the 

 front of the body white ; the lesser quills tipped with white. 



