244 
FOREST AND STREAM 
AT THE WOOD’S EDGE. 
T WO walked out of a wood by pleasant ways 
A wood wherein each breath did wake delight. 
There charmed trees, that stirred not through the days, 
Shook delicate spray-drops off at touch of night, 
That in the morn were blossoms to the sight, 
And sprang in honeyed clusters ’neath the tread. 
Never was any wood so filled with praise 
Of singing creatures in the air o’erhead. 
Now at the very verge of this sweet maze 
There grew a rose tree, half in shade, half light; 
And all its blossoms that outward leaned were white, 
And all that drank the dusky shadows, red. 
And as the twain passed out beneath its bower, 
Each put forth careless hand and plucked a flower. 
Then cheerly fared they onward, till one turned 
Downward ner timid eyes, and saw—alas! 
In her fair hand the rose was red, and burned 
Like a soft flame; pure white the other was! 
Then crimson grew her forehead. “Nay,” said she, 
“Were they not gathered'from the self-same tree? 
I will straightway go change. So swift she sped, 
No smallest flower had time to hide its head. 
Her lustrous eyes, dark with sweet wood shadows, 
Did seem to change the hue of any rose 
Whereon they fell. Turning her face, she broke 
A fair, milk-throated blossom from its tree, 
Yet thrust the other, when no eye did see, 
Into her bosom. Resting ’neath an oak, 
Her way-mate soon she joined, and neither spoke; 
Nor any knew that still, on ways made bright 
With wholesome snns, she holds—close hid from sight— 
The faded red rose dearer than the white. 
Galaxy. Helen Barron Bostwick. 
tmnl Jp istarg 
For Forest and Stream. 
THE GREAT AUK IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 
-*- 
W HEN the island of Newfoundland was first dis¬ 
covered, and for two hundred years afterwards, the 
numerous low rocky islands off the eastern coast were 
the haunts of that remarkable oceanic bird, the Great 
Auk, which is now believed to be extinct. The Penguin, 
Wadham and Funk Islands, and the countless islets which 
stud the bosom of Trinity, Bonavista and Notre Dame bays, 
were the favorite resorts of the Great Auk, where they 
were to be found in incredible numbers. From these 
islands which were their breeding grounds they spread 
over the neighboring seas, so as to be a sure sea-mark to 
the mariners on the edge of and inside the banks, when 
they were drawing near the shores of Newfoundland. 
When the sailors of the 16th and 17th centuries fell in with, 
the flocks of the Great Auk, they knew that they had 
reached soundings on the banks, and the sight of these 
great birds paddling rapidly with their wings over the sur¬ 
face of the ocean, or diving after their prey, was very wel¬ 
come to the weather-beaten tars of those days. They were 
accustomed to depend on the Auks for a supply of fresh 
provisions, their flesh being savory and wholesome, while 
their capture was a very simple matter. Not only were 
the crews of the fishing vessels in the habit of consuming 
vast quantities of these birds fresh, but they were accus¬ 
tomed to salt down many tons of them for future use. 
Landing on the islands where they were bred, the sailors 
also took off whole boat-loads of their eggs. On land, the 
poor helpless Auks patiently waited to be slaughtered, one 
after another, being unable to make any effort to escape, 
their wings being useless for flight, and only of service as 
paddles in the water. Armed only with sticks, the sailors 
landed, and in a short time filled their boats with these 
plump unwieldy birds who quietly awaited their turn to be 
knocked on the head. Nay, so accommodating were they 
that even on their proper element, where, by using their 
short wings as paddles, they could move about with astonish¬ 
ing rapidity, they allowed themselves to be captured in any 
quantity. Not only so, but it is stated on good authority, 
that they were obliging enough to “walk the plank” into 
a boat from the sea, when the sailors pushed out a gang¬ 
way and drove them along it. This fact is attested by 
honest Captain Richard Whitbourne, who, in the reign of 
James I. published a book, a copy of which was sent by that 
monarch to each parish in the kingdom, in order to induce 
Englishmen to emigrate to. the “New-Found-Land.” 
Whitbourne speaks thus of thelAuks, or “Penguins” as he 
named them in this volume: “ThesePenguins are as bigge 
as geese and flye not, for they have but a little short 
wing; and they multiply so infinitely upon a certain flat 
island that men drive them from thence upon a board into 
their boats by hundreds at a time, as if God had made the 
innocency of so poor a creature to become such an admir¬ 
able instrument for the sustentation of man.” Thus 
quaintly does old Whitbourne moralize upon the “inno¬ 
cency” of the Auk which proved so very convenient for 
the hungry sailors of those days. 
It is evident that in “the battle of life,” such a bird as 
the Great Auk had but a poor chance. In a world where 
competition for available provisions is so keen, where 
“the struggle for existence” is so terrible, and where only 
“the fittest” survive, such a simpleton as the Great Auk 
must ere long be gobbled up. When the fat “innocent at 
home” actually walked into the mouths of its foes—great 
gawk that it was—its doom must be annihilation, sooner or 
later. Such proved to be the case. The reckless sailors 
ate it fresh and salted-; feasted on its eggs; burned its body 
for fuel, in order to warm water to pick off the feathers 
which were of much value; and after slaughtering the 
gawky birds till they were weary, they shut up huge flocks 
in low stone enclosures, in order to have them ready when 
wanted. The merchants of Bonavista, and other localities, 
during the winter season, used to sell these birds to poor 
people by the hundredweight, instead of pork. Year after 
year, this war of extermination went on and their numbers 
were vastly thinned. 
The Penguin Islands, on the northern coast, which were 
little frequented, afforded them a refuge for a time, but 
they were at length pursued even here, and finally disap¬ 
peared entirely, and for many years not a single Auk has 
been seen where once the ocean was alive with them. 
It is the opinion of the best naturalists that the Great 
Auk, like the Dodo, is now extinct. In Wood’s Illustrated 
Natural History, (page 471,) we are told that “almost the 
last living specimens known were seen in the Orkneys, and 
were quite familiar to the inhabitants under the name of 
King and Queen of the Auks. So agile is (or was) this 
bird in the water that Mr. Bullock chased the male for 
several hours, without being able to get within gun-shot, 
although he was in a boat manned by six rowers. After 
his departure, the bird was shot and sent to the British 
Museum. The female had been killed just before his ar¬ 
rival.” It appears, however, that the bird was seen at a 
later date, as the following extract from Links in the Chain 
indicates: “The last known breeding places of the bird 
are two isolated rocks, extremely difficult of access, off the 
south coast of Iceland; and at long intervals, sometimes of 
ten or fifteen years, a few individuals have been obtained 
thence, up to the year 1844. In that year a pair of birds, 
male and female, were shot at their nest, on a little islet, 
near to one of the former breeding places; and since that 
time, notwithstanding that the most careful search has 
every where been made for it, the Great Auk has no where 
been seen alive. ” Colonel Drummond Hay, however, has 
recorded the fact (Ibis, 1861, page 397) of a living specimen 
of A. impermis being seen on the banks of Newfoundland 
so recently as 1852, and also of another being picked up 
the following year in Trinity Bay. This would seem to 
warrant the hope that if a search were made among those 
surf-bound and dangerous islands along the southern and 
eastern coasts of Newfoundland, which are seldom ap¬ 
proached by vessels, it might be attended with success, for 
if any localities are likely to hold living specimens of the 
bird it would seem to be some of these rocky solitudes 
rarely trodden by the foot of man, which were once the 
headquarters of the Great Auk. Mr. Reeks, a distinguish¬ 
ed English naturalist, who spent the years 1868 and 1869 
on the western shore of Newfoundland, collecting speci¬ 
mens, heard among the settlers there that “a living pin¬ 
wing was caught by one Captain Stirling twelve years be¬ 
fore,” and old settlers remembered seeing the living bird 
fishing in the mouths Of Bonne Bay, Bay of Islands, and Bay 
St. George. The settlers call it “Pinwing,” and Professor 
Newton considers that “Penguin” or “Pingwin” as it is 
often spelled, is but a corruption of the word pin wing, 
from the fact that the operation known as “pinioning” is 
called “j pin-winging” in some parts of England, aiid had 
been applied to certain sea fowl, which being unable to 
fly appeared to have been “pin-winged Mr. Reeks clings 
to the belief that living specimens of the Great Auk 
still exist on some of the lonely islands around Newfound¬ 
land. 
However this may be, certain it is that Newfoundland 
contains numerous skeleton remains of the bird. The 
most perfect skeleton known to be in existence, now in the 
British Museum, was found along with two others on the 
Funk Islands in 1864. They came into the possession of 
Rev. Dr. Field, Bishop of Newfoundland, who sent one to 
Professor Agassiz which I presume is now in the Cambridge 
Museum, Mass.; a second to Professor Newton, and the 
third to Mr. Jones of Halifax, who sent it to the British 
Museum. These skeletons were found under drift ice by a 
person who had visited the Funk Islands to collect guano. 
The islands are uninhabited and now rarely visited, and it 
is every way probable that many more specimens might be 
found there. If Cambridge Museum contains the speci¬ 
men sent to Agassiz, I believe it is the only one on this side 
of the Atlantic. Professor Baird has been making strenuous 
efforts to get one for the Smithsonian, but hitherto without 
success. 
It must have been a singular sight, two hundred years 
ago, to see these wild lonely islands litefally covered with 
these strange birds, as they w addled slowly about in an 
erect position, with their broad webbed feet, and short 
wings, resembling the flippers of a seal. In fact they were 
the connecting link between the fish and bird, partaking of 
the nature of both. In these lonely islands they were the 
sole occupants, for many centuries, in all probability. The 
English Pilot for 1774 thus refers to them: “They never 
go beyond the bank, as others do, for they are always on it 
or within it, several of them together, sometimes more, 
sometimes less, but never less than two together. They 
are large fowls, about the size of ^ goose, a coal black head 
and back, with a white spot under one of their eyes, which 
nature has ordered to be under their right eye,—an extra¬ 
ordinary mark. These birds never fly, for their wings are 
very short, and most like the fins of fish, having nothing 
upon them but a sort of down and short feathers.” Wood 
says in his Natural History„ (page 417,) “the egg ares varia¬ 
ble in size, color, and markings, some being of a silvery 
white, and others of a yellowish white ground, and the 
spots and streaks are greatly different in color and form, 
some being yellowish brown and purple, others intense 
blue and green. The upper surface of this bird is black, 
except a patch of pure whitl around and in front of the 
eye, and the ends of the secondaries, which are white. The 
whole of the under surface is white, and in winter the chin 
and throat are also white. The total length of the bird * 
thirty-two inches.” The legs of the Great Auk were ex 
tremely short but powerful, and placed so much posteriorly 
that; in resting on the rocks, the birds assumed an upright 
attitude, the whole of the legs and toes being applied to the 
surface. The toes were three in number and fully webbed 
the hind toe being rudimentary. The bill was compressed 
laterally and groved at the sides. The Auks are natives of 
the northern hemisphere; the Penguins take their place in 
the southern. They were once common, not only on New 
foundland, but in Greenland, Spitzbergen, Iceland and 
Norway. The Little Auk, the Razor-billed Auk, Puffin 
and Guillemot, all belonging to the same family as the 
Great Auk, are common around the coasts of Newfound- 
land. M. H . 
«- THE DODO 
Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C. 
Editor Forest and Stream :— 
On. page 234 of your issue of May 21st, I notice an article 
upon the dodo, stating that this bird had recently been cap 
tured alive in the Navigator Islands by Dr. A. B. Stein- 
berger. The bird which this gentleman secured was not 
the dodo, but the dodo pigeon, {Didunculus strigirostris) a 
species -which is well known to ornithologists and which 
exists in more than one museum, the National Collection 
having had a good mounted example for many years 
Though a member of the pigeon family, the present species 
is so aberrant that Bonaparte instituted in 1850 a separate 
family, ( Didunculidw ,) for its especial accommodation; but 
its characters scarcely warrant so wide a removal from the 
true pigeons, and Gray’s s^-family, ( Didunculinw ,) may be 
accepted as a probably more truthful expression of its re¬ 
lationship. The generic name of the dodo pigeon, ( Didun¬ 
culus ,) signifies “little dodo,” and was suggested by the re¬ 
semblance of many parts of the bird to those of the dodo, 
(Didus ineptus.) It is perhaps needless to add that the latter 
bird is yet known only by the few fragmentary remains 
which have been preserved,, and that ornithologists need 
not hope ever to see better evidence of its former existence. 
Robert Ridgway. 
. [We were seasonably advised through authentic scientific 
sources, by letters addressed personally to us, not to put 
confidence in the alleged discovery of a live dodo by Dr. 
Steinberger, but the article in our paper, which was taken 
from one of our city dailies, was already on the press and 
could not be recalled. We thank the writer of the above 
article and our numerous naturalist friends for the earnest 
interest they manifest in maintaining the character of this 
paper for scientific correctness. One of these dodo pigeons 
is now on exhibition at Mr. Reiche’s, in Chatham street, 
near our office.—E d.] 
Davenport, Iowa, May 15, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
In your issue of April 30th, page 180, there is a letter 
from C. E. T., asking your opinion in reference to the time 
that salmon return from the sea to the stream, where they 
were spawned. Your correspondent speaks of an “old 
experienced Scotchman” who told him “that salmon in 
Scotland, spawned in winter, come back from the sea as 
grilse weighing from four to seven pounds. The second 
season they come back as spawning salmon.” Do you, Mr. 
Editor, understand him that those that were spawned in 
say the winter of 1872, come back in the fall of 1873 as 
grilse and in the fall of 1874 as spawning salmon? If so, 
the old Scotchman was never under a greater mistake. 
What becomes of their nearly two and a half years of parr 
stage of life before they leave their native stream to go to 
the sea? I was raised on a salmon stream in Scotland and 
for fifty 3 ^ears have been a fly fisher for salmon and trout, 
though, in my present locality, I have to content myself 
with throwing a fly for black bass. In Scotland I studied 
carefully the habits of. salmon and trout, their spawning 
time, when they migrated to the sea, and the seasons of their 
return. 
In the west of Scotland the salmon spawn during 
the months of October and November, the following sum¬ 
mer and fall they, the young, are about from three to four 
inches in length, the following year they, of course, are 
larger, by the fall some of them will weigh two ounces, 
seldom over that, and during these two years are known as 
parr. In the following spring they change there appear¬ 
ance? While a parr they resemble a small brook trout in 
color, having a row of dark oval blotches along their sides; 
but in the spring their back assumes a blueish black color, 
and the sides and belly the bright silvery appearance of the 
salmon; they are then on their way to the sea, this is dur¬ 
ing the months of April and May; and in the River Clyde, 
in Scotland, not one of them are seen by the last of May. 
After they experience this change in their appearance they 
are no longer known or termed parr but salmon fry. Thus 
those salmon eggs that are hatched, say in the fall of 1871, 
do not leave their native stream for the sea till the spring of 
1874. . 
I presume, Mr. Editor, that you are aquainted with tue 
experiments and observations of Mr. Shaw, of Scotland, an 
intelligent game keeper on a large estate, who proved to a 
demonstration the correctness of what I have above stated. 
In the fall, previous to the spring in which the parr changes 
his appearance ready to go to sea, I have caught some large 
males that were full of melt, but I never saw a female pail 
with roe in them. Mr. Shaw successfully impregnated tne 
roe of a large salmon with the melt of the male parr. Anyoi 
your readers who are interested in the history of the salmon 
during its parr state up to the mature fish can find it in 
Chamber’s Encyclopedia, furnished by Mr. Shaw. I h a 7® 
spoken above of the salmon in the streams of the west o 
Scotland; what may be their habits on this continent r 
know not from my own observations, haying never resme 
any length of time away from this vicinity. I am nru 
interested in reading the many very desirable articles 
your paper on fish and fishing. Wm. Gray. ^ 
For habits and natural history of salmon see “Halloct s 
Fishing Tourist,” pages 33-35 .—Ed.] 
--- — 
—The Maryland Legislature recently passed a law pro¬ 
tecting trout. 
