HE ORNITHOLOGIST. 



-»-> ■» 



_£^S- 



Vol 1. 



TWIN BLUFFS, WIS., JUNE, 1885. 



No. 2. 



The Great Auk. 



BY T. W. G. 



A special interest attaches itself 

 to the Great Auk, from the circum- 

 stance that there is no record of its 

 having been taken, or even seen 

 alive, for more than a quarter of a 

 century. 



The only record of this rare bird 

 being seen alive is as follows: In 

 the year 1821 Dr. Fleming while on 

 a cruise through the Hebrides, ob- 

 served and described one which had 

 been taken alive in the sea off St. 

 Kilda and put on board the yacht. 

 With a rope attached to one of its 

 legs, this specimen was occasionally 

 allowed to disport itself in the water. 

 This one was lost while bathing, by 

 the rope breaking. Another one was 

 seen a few years before off Papa 

 Westre, one of the Orkney Islands, 

 but in spite of the exertions of the 

 crew of a six-oared boat for several 

 hours, it escaped; a while afterwards 

 this same specimen was taken, and 

 is now in the British Museum. The 

 Great Auk measures three feet in 

 length, has a large bill, but wings so 

 small as to be useless for flying, but 

 very powerful swimming organs. It 

 laid but a single egg on the bare rock 

 close to the waters edge. This bird 

 being extinct gives special value to 

 the remains now existing. They 

 are as follows: about 7.2 skins, 9 

 skeletons, about 71 different bones, 

 and 65 eggs. Two of the eggs 

 were sold in an auction room in 

 Edinburg, for $16. They were after- 

 ward sold in London, one for five 

 hundred dollars, and the other for 

 102 guineas. — The, Exchange. 



A Water T urkey. 



A correspondent of Forest and 

 Stream, hunting on Indian River, 

 Florida, thus describes the snake- 

 bird or water-turkey. 



On the left are islands innumer- 

 able, with tortuous channels between 

 them, and woe betide the unlucky 

 boatman who gets lost in the laby- 

 rinth of their intricate windings. 



The islands are green to ( the 

 water's edge with mangrove bushes, 

 and the scene is enlivened by the 

 numerous waterfowl, egrets, herons, 

 pelicans, gallinules, water-turkeys, 

 cormorants and fish-crows, feeding 

 near the islands, and the gulls, terns, 

 vultures, ospreys and man-o'-war 

 hawks, swooping, skimming and sail- 

 ing in the air above. 



"Look, what a queer snake!*'' 

 suddenly exclaimed Frank, as he 

 seized his gun. 



We saw a snake apparently wiggl- 

 ing out of the water several feet into 

 the air near one of the islands. As 

 Frank fired, part of the snake drop- 

 ped on the water, while the other 

 part too"k wing and flew away. 



"Did the snake drop the bird, or 

 the bird drop the snake V" asked 

 Frank. 



"Yes, that was about the way of 

 it," observed Ed. 



The explanation was quite simple. 

 A snake-bird, or water-turkey [Plotus 

 anhinga,) swimming with his long- 

 neck only out of water, had the 

 snake in his bill, which he dropped 

 and flew away when Frank fired his 

 gun. 



Sidney Lanier's description of 

 this bird is quite characteristic :- 



"The water-turkey is the most 

 preposterous bird within the range 



