ee 
VIII. Description of the Skeleton of the Great Auk, or Garfowl (Alca impennis, L.). 
By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S. 
Read June 14, 1864. 
[Puates LI. & LIT.) 
MR. ALFRED NEWTON , M.A., F.L.S., who, with his friend the late lamented and 
accomplished naturalist Mr. J. Wolley, has contributed valuable materials! for the 
history of the Garfowl (Alca impennis, L.), prosecuting his endeavours to obtain 
additional materials for that history, 
has received the body of a speci- wey, x, NA gl | 
men, dried, flattened, featherless, wm ta 
and mummified, like the Penguins |¢ N ma ave Si 
“\ a ~ \ Lh 
from the guano-masses of the Peru- [[Cs==5 
pe pate \ < i 
=F \ | 
vian islands. This specimen was |i2%vssw\& ax Ny *K | 
obtained from one of the old breed- o AE & adit oe H 
ing-places of the extinct bird, Funk 
Island, long. 53° W., lat. 49° 45’ N., <q 
off the coast of Newfoundland, by \ / 
the Bishop of that colonial diocese, Fuk sland. dai -z)? \} 
and was transmitted by his Lordship lat 49°AGN. \ i Es ie 
to Mr. Newton, who has kindly con- eee ett Ss 
fided it to me for description, with P Te, ys Ti A 2 
permission to treat the specimen as ) OS A teats 
might best serve the interests of wee \ 
science. rar OS 
A preliminary photograph of the 
mummy having been taken, it was 
accordingly macerated for the ex- 
traction of the skeleton, and has 
yielded the skull, bones of the trunk, 
scapular arch, and furculum, right 
humerus, right femur, tibia, and Old breeding-ground of Alea impennis. 
fibula. 
Learning that Mr. John Hancock, the accomplished and artistic taxidermist of 
Newcastle-on-Tyne, had extracted the bones of the extremities from a rare skin of Alca 
¥ 
t Philadelphia. Js 
40 Washington ~S 
* See abstract of Mr. Wolley’s “ Researches in Iceland respecting the Garefowl, or Great Auk (lca impennis, 
Linn.),” by Alfred Newton, Esq., M.A., F.Z.S., ‘Ibis,’ October 1861, p. 374. 
272 
