564 



Palaearctic Eegion, there can scarcely be any doubt that it is now altogether extinct. To write 

 a complete history of this remarkable flightless bird would entail a considerable amount of 

 research into old works, and would take up more space than I should be justified in using for 

 the history of an extinct species ; I propose therefore to give but a brief account, and may 

 refer my readers to the articles by Professor Newton in 'The Ibis' (1861, p. 374, and 1870, 

 p. 256), the 'Natural-History Review' (1865, p. 467), and in the last edition of the 'Encyclo- 

 paedia Britannica' ("Birds," vol. iii. pp. 734, 735, and "Gare-fowl," vol. x. pp. 78-80) for 

 further details. The late Mr. Wolley began the collection of facts relating to the Gare-fowl 

 with the view of writing its history, and to that end made a voyage to Iceland to gather from 

 the mouths of those who had seen the last of it all they could tell him about it. At his death 

 the materials he had collected passed into the possession of Professor Newton, who, in the 

 articles above cited, has recounted the general results thus obtained, and, it may be hoped, will 

 one day publish all the details which he, in conjunction with the late Mr. Rowley (whose interest 

 in the history of this as of other extinct species of birds was very great), has since accumulated. 



It has generally been supposed that the Gai - e-fowl or Great Auk was essentially an arctic 

 species ; but this is a popular error ; for, as Professor Newton points out, but one capture has 

 been reported from within the arctic circle, and it is doubtful whether the specimen in question, 

 now in the Copenhagen Museum, was really obtained at Disco or at Fiskenses, much further to 

 the southward and without the arctic circle. The story first published by Professor Steenstrup 

 (Vid. Meddel. 1855, p. 95, note) that early in April 1848 one was shot on Vardo, in EastFinmark, 

 has also been shown by Professor Newton to be unreliable. 



The true home of the present species appears to have been St. Kilda, the Orkney, and Faro 

 Islands, and some three or four isolated rocks off Iceland on this side, and the Newfoundland 

 seas on the other side of the Atlantic, its occurrence elsewhere being merely accidental. The last 

 obtained in Orkney was killed in 1812, and sent to Mr. Bullock, at the sale of whose collection it 

 was bought for the British Museum, where it now is— a fine specimen in summer plumage. The 

 last known at St. Kilda was caught alive in 1821 or 1822, but subsequently made its escape, as 

 stated by Fleming (Edinb. Phil. Journ. x. pp. 96, 97), who saw it while in captivity. In 1834 

 Dr. Burkitt received from Mr. Francis Davis, of Waterford, an example which had been taken 

 alive, some time before, at the mouth of that harbour, as recorded by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun. 

 (Zool. s. s. p. 1449), who has corrected several errors in the fonner accounts of this singular 

 event. The specimen, which died while moulting, was given by Dr. Burkitt to the Museum of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, and is now to be seen there. These three are the only instances of the 

 occurrence of the species in the British Islands within recent times that are at all trustworthy ; 

 for though there are other records of the bird having been seen or obtained, but not preserved, 

 they are naturally open to doubt. 



In Greenland the Great Auk has not been obtained since 1815, in which year the example 

 above mentioned was shot at Fiskenses ; for though one is said to have been killed and eaten 

 between Fortuna Bay and Engleman's Harbour in September 1859 or 1860, Mr. Collin (Skand. 

 Fugl. p. 749) states that the result of further investigation on the spot shows that some mistake 

 must have been made. 



Faber (Prodr. Isl. Orn. p. 48) says that it used formerly to breed on two isolated rocks in 



