563 



ALCA IMPENNIS. 



(GARE-FOWL, or GREAT AUK. 



Alca major, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 85, pi. vii. (1760). 



Alca impennis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 210 (1766). 



Le Grand Pingouin, Buff. Hist. Nat. Ois. ix. p. 393, pi. xxix. (1783). 



Pinguinus impennis (L.), Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. i. p. 28 (1790). 



Alca borealis, Forster, Synopt. Cat. Brit. B. p. 29 (1817). 



Plautus impennis (L.), Steenstrup, Naturh. Foren. Viclensk. Meddel. 1855, p. 114. 



Chenalopex impennis (L.), G. E. Gray, Hand-1. of B. iii. p. 95. no. 10773 (1871). 



Gearbhul, Gaelic ; Grand Pingouin, French ; Brillenalk, fiugloser Alk, German ; Geirfugl, 

 Danish ; Gorfuglur, Faeroese ; Geirfugl, Icelandic ; Anglemager ["?], Geirfugl, Norwegian ; 

 Garfogel, Swedish ; IsarokitsoJc, Greenlandic. 



Figurce notabiles. 



Edwards, Nat. Hist. B. iii. pi. 147 ; D'Aubenton, PI. Enl. 367; Donovan, Brit. Birds, pi. 243 

 (winter plumage); Hunt, Br. Orn. iii. pi. to face p. 8 ; Werner, Atlas, Palmipedes, pi. 74 ; 

 Kjaerb. Orn. Dan. taf. 53, Suppl. taf. 35; Naumann, Vog. Deutschl. taf. 337; Sundevall, 

 Svensk. Fogl. pi. lxxx. fig. 2 ; Gould, B. of Eur. pi. 400 ; id. B. of G. Brit. v. pi. 46 ; 

 Audub. B. of Am. pi. 341. 



Ad. capite, collo et corpore supra, cum alis et cauda, nigris, remigibus secundariis albo terminatis : ante 

 ventrem plaga magna, ovali alba : pectore et corpore subtus albis : rostro et pedibus nigris. 



Adult in summer. Head, hind neck, throat, and entire upper parts, with the wings and tail, black ; secondary 

 feathers tipped with white, and between the beak aud the eye there is also a large oval patch of white ; 

 breast and underparts generally pure white; beak and legs black, the former very strong and with 

 several vertical furrows on the lower mandible; iris deep brown. Total length about 30 inches, 

 beak 3 - 6, wing 6'0, tail 2 - 0, tarsus 2*1. 



Adult in winter. Figured by Donovan (ut suprh) from specimen formerly in the Leverian Museum, as 

 having the chiu, throat, and front of the neck white instead of black. 



Young (only in Newcastle Museum). Like the adult, but having only two or three furrows on the mandible, 

 instead of from six to ten. 



Obs. I do not believe that there is any concise description on record of the young bird in down; all I can 

 find relating to the subject is the note by O. Fabricius, who says (Faun. Groenl. p. 82) that he saw a 

 young bird, captured in August, which was covered with grey down: "pullum vidi, mense Augusto 

 captum, lanuginem griseam tantum habentem." 



It is with some doubt that I include the Gare-fowl in the present work ; for although it has at 

 one time been by no means a very rare bird in the extreme north-western portion of the Western 



6n2 



