6888 Birds. 



stupid that they allowed themselves to be taken up, on their own 

 proper element, by boats under sail ; and it is even said that on 

 putting out a plank it was possible to drive the great auks up out of 

 the sea into the boats. On land the sailors formed low enclosures of 

 stones, into which they drove the penguins, and, as they were unable 

 to fly, kept them there enclosed till they were wanted for the table. 



In 1841 a distinguished Norwegian naturalist (too early, alas ! lost 

 to Science), Peter Stuwitz, visited Tunk Island, or Penguin Island, 

 lying to the east of Newfoundland. Here, on the north-west shore of 

 the island, he found enormous heaps of the bones and skeletons of the 

 great auk, lying either in exposed masses or slightly covered by the 

 earth. On this side of the island the rocks slope gradually down to 

 the shore ; and here were still standing the stone fences and enclosures 

 into which the birds were driven for slaughter. It is said, too, that as 

 the birds were fat, and burnt well, they were actually used for fuel, 

 as the dried bodies of the auks and guillemots are still employed on 

 the Westmann Islands. 



Holboll tells us that no specimen of the great auk has been seen in 

 Greenland since 1815; but Dr. Pingel informed us, in Copenhagen, in 

 1836, that two birds of the species had been killed there since 1830. 

 One was eaten by the Moravian missionaries as a wild goose ! and the 

 other was preserved, and is now in the collection of an ornithologist 

 at Schleswig. 



It has been surmised that the present habitat of the great auk may 

 be upon the inaccessible coast of East Greenland ; but ships sailing 

 between Iceland and that country never meet with the great auk upon 

 their passage ; nor was the bird observed by Scoresby or the few 

 other navigators who approached these ice-bound shores. Nor did 

 Graah observe this bird during his toilsome researches east of Cape 

 Farewell. 



It is possible that a few of these birds still survive on the islets of 

 Newfoundland or Labrador ; but, if not already extirpated, the great 

 auk will, ere many years have elapsed, be numbered amongst the 

 things that were. 



Whitetailed Eagle (Falco albicilla) near Eastbourne. — A most magnificent speci- 

 men of this eagle was shot on Saturday last, at Birling Gap, by Mr. John Hicks, 

 chief boatman of that station. It was feeding on a dead turtle that had been washed 

 ashore by the late heavy gales. It weighs nearly 8 lbs., measures from tip of bill to 

 end of tail 3 feet, and about 7 feet from tip to tip of the wings. It had been seen 



