436 MR. A. NEWTON ON ALCA IMPENNIS. [NoV. 10, 



guin Isles two or three miles from shore ; Penguin Islands, too, in 

 the middle of the south coast of Newfoundland." 



This note was evidently written after making a careful examination 

 of the map; and I well remember, in February 1856, going over a 

 chart of the North Atlantic with him, in which he had previously 

 marked the various places known as " Penguin Island," " Bird Rock," 

 and the like. To the best of my recollection, he also told me, either 

 at the same or some former period, that in the course of his reading 

 he had come across various notices of " Penguins," contained in the 

 narratives of ancient voyages to that part of the world. All this 

 time, however, I had not been altogether idle in the way of collecting 

 (or at least seeking for) information on the subject. In the summer 

 of 1853, as I have elsewhere stated*, a boatman at Torquay, then 

 about seventy years of age, and by name William Stabb, told my 

 brother Edward and myself that in former days he used to follow 

 the Newfoundland Cod-fishery, and that he had seen Penguins off 

 that coast. He added that they used to resort by hundreds to some 

 islands there to breed, but were destroyed for their feathers, being 

 driven up in a corner by people in boats. This practice, however, 

 must have nearly or altogether ceased in his time ; for he stated 

 that he had never seen but two or three birds himself, and never a 

 dead one. I mention these facts merely to show that Mr. Wolley's 

 determination to work out the history of the Gare-Fowl, or Northern 

 Penguin, was formed prior to his acquaintance with Professor Steen- 

 strup's valuable discoveries, and to their publication in the elaborate 

 and excellent article (Vidensk. Meddelelser, 1855, pp. 33-116) on 

 this bird to which it always gives me so much pleasure to refer. 

 When Mr. Wolley, later (in 1856), became aware of what that illus- 

 trious naturalist had ascertained, he was more than ever bent upon 

 prosecuting his researches; and, acting upon the information I received 

 from him, I at once set about doing what I could to further themf . 

 Believing at the time that no example of the bird's skeleton existed in 

 any of the European museums, and having great confidence in the 

 trustworthiness of Herr Stuvitz's statements, as given by Professor 

 Steenstrup {loc. cit.), that there were still many of its bones to be 

 found on Funk Island, I began to address letters of inquiry respect- 

 ing them, to almost every one I could hear of in Newfoundland who 

 seemed likely to be able to give assistance. I need not here go into 

 details. For a long time I could get no response from any of those 

 to whom I wrote ; some of my epistles were returned to me through 

 the dead-letter office ; and occasionally I almost despaired of calling 

 attention to the subject in that colony. At last I had the great 

 pleasure of receiving from the clergyman of the Island of Fogo, the 

 Rev. Reginald M. Johnson, a reply 'which in the most obliging terms 

 promised me his valuable help in the matter. Still the chances of 

 procuring specimens of bones that would really be serviceable towards 

 determining the osteology of Alca impennis were not good. Though 



* ' Zoology of Ancient Europe,' London and Cambridge, 1862, p. 30. 

 t Cf.' The Ibis,' 1861, p. 397. 



