144 THE ZOOLOGIST* 



it, or within it, several of them together, some times more, other 

 times less, but never less than two together. They are large 

 fowls, about the bigness of a Goose, a coal-black Head and Back, 

 with a white Belly, and a milk-white spot under one of their 

 Eyes, which Nature has ordered to be under the right Eye, and 

 extraordinarily remarkable. For my part, I never saw any with 

 such a spot under their left Eye, the figure of which I have here 

 set down to facilitate the knowledge of them, &c." 



This information also appears in identical terms, or with 

 wholly unimportant variations, in the editions of 1737, 1755, 

 1760, 1775, and, I suppose, in that of 1794 (which, however, 

 I have not seen), to judge from the fact that Sir Richard Bonny- 

 castle, in his 'Newfoundland in 1842' (London, 2 vols., 8vo, 

 vol i. p. 232), quotes a portion of a very similar passage from the 

 edition of that year. The same figures (here reproduced) occur 

 in all the above-mentioned editions, unless they be omitted 

 from that of 1794. 



Mr. Grieve (who does not seem to have referred to Seller direct) 

 quotes the fragment given by Bonnycastle, with further variations 

 of his own (' The Great Auk,' p. 66, n.) ; and, like Bonnycastle, 

 he makes no reference to the figures, which appeared in the 

 various editions of Seller's work, and which are here reproduced 

 in facsimile by the photo -zinco process. Prof. Newton, too, in 

 his article on " The Gare-fowl and its Historians," published in 

 the 'Natural History Review' for October, 1865, refers (p. 483) 

 to Seller's 'English Pilot' as "a work we ourselves have not 

 been able to examine," and quotes, in consequence, only the 

 fragment given by Bonnycastle. My attention has been kindly 

 drawn to these facts by the Editor. As, therefore, two leading 

 writers on the history of the Great Auk have been unable to 

 obtain access to the original work, it seems well worth while to 

 reproduce here the passage and the illustrations in question. 



Whilst upon this subject, it may be worth while to men- 

 tion that, upon many of the earliest charts of Newfoundland 

 (1500-1560), which I have lately had occasion to study, there 

 are represented several islands bearing the names "Ilha aves" or 

 "Isle des Oiseaux," which may certainly be regarded as an 

 indication of the abundance of sea-fowl— the Great Auk, no 

 doubt, being among the species — upon some of the islands off 



