468 



THE DIVING BIRDS — PYGOPODES. 



Total leiigtli, about 29.00 to 30.00 inches ; extent, 27.25 (Audubon); wings, 5.75 ; tail, about 

 3.00; bill along gape, 4.25-4.50; culnien, 3.15-3.50; greatest depth of closed bill, about 1.50; 

 tarsus, 1.66 ; middle toe with claw, 3.25. 



We have seen no description of this species in j^oung or winter plumage ; the latter, however, 



judging from the seasonal changes in Alca torda and other members of the family, would doubtless 

 have the under side of the head white, the maxilla destitute of the basal lamina, and perhaps the 

 loral white patch absent. 



I'he researches of the late Mr. John Wolley into the history of this probably 

 extinct species, as presented by Professor Alfred Newton (" Ibis," 1861, pp. 374-399), 

 have thrown mnch light upon their closing existence in Iceland, and have preserved 

 the records of many interesting facts that would otherwise have passed into oblivion. 

 Tliis author calls attention to the very general misconception that has prevailed, to 

 the effect that the Great Auk was a bird of the Far North, and belonged to Polar 

 Regions. Tliis error — as he supposes — originated in the inadvertence of naturalists, 

 who have confounded localities quite distinct and remote from one another. There 

 is hardly a single reliable instance on record of the capture of the Great Auk within 

 the limits of the Arctic circle. Even the statement, quoted by Reinhardt, that this 

 bird has been taken on Disco Island (" Ibis," 1861, p. 15) is not free from doubt, 

 and possibly it may have been confounded with the specimen obtained at Fiskernaes 

 in 1815 ; and Professor Newton is evidently inclined to the belief that there is no 

 trustworthy evidence that this bird ever exit ted within the Arctic circle. 



Mr. Wolley could find no traces of the recent presence of the Great Auk about 

 Iceland, except among a small chain of volcanic islets, known as the Fuglasker, 

 lying off the southwestern point of that island. These islets are from thirteen to 

 thirty miles distant from the shore, widely separated from each other, and, ownng to 



