OF XOETHXJiriiJEEIAIfD AJs^D DTTRHAM. 165 



it breeding there, but in no great numbers. I was informed by 

 the late IVIr. Joseph Watson, Jun., and Mr. Isaac Clark, who 

 visited the islands in 1870, that there was then a colony of con- 

 siderable size, and they saw great numbers of the birds swim- 

 ming about in all directions. 



164. ALGA, Linnceus. 



74. Eazoe-bill. a. torda, Linnceus. 



Alca torda, Bewick, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 1847, II., 402, 404. 

 ,, „ YarreU, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 2, III., 473. 



A resident ; common on the coast the whole year. A few spe- 

 cimens breed occasionally at the Earne Islands. I have an egg 

 that was taken there in 1838. 



75. Great Attk. A. iivtpennis, Linnceus. 



Alca impennis, Bewick, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 1847, II., 405. 

 „ „ YarreU, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 2, III., 476. 



A specimen of this interesting, and probably now extinct, 

 bird (Plate XIII,) appears to have been taken on the Earne 

 Islands, about a centiuy ago. In "Wallis's "History of JN'orth- 

 umberland," it is stated, under the head Penguin, that "a curi- 

 ous and uncommon bird was taken aKve a few years ago in the 

 island of Earn, and presented to the late John William Bacon, 

 Esq., of Etherstone, with whom it grew so tame and familiar, 

 that it would follow him with its body erect to be fed." 



There can be little doubt that this so-called Penguin was 

 really the Great Auk. The only bird with which it might have 

 been confounded is one or other of the Great Divers, the ]S"orthem 

 or the Black-throated; but as neither of these can, I believe, 

 walk, it could not be said that it followed Mr. Bacon " with its 

 body erect to be fed;" while there can be no doubt that the 

 Great Auk could move in this particular position, as the Bazor 

 Bill does. 



