8112 



Birds. 



Natural History. * We therefore decided we would not attempt the 

 journey thither, at the risk of missing what seemed a better chance, 

 that of finding the object of our search in the neighbourhood of the 

 western locality, where examples of the bird were known to have been 

 last obtained. At the same time we thought it highly desirable that 

 this eastern Geirfuglasker should be visited, and through the interven- 

 tion of several kind friends we at last met with a gentleman who was 

 willing, for a suitable recompense, to undertake the toilsome, not to 

 say dangerous, expedition. To dismiss this part of the subject at 

 once, I may here say that our envoy, Herr Candidatus-Theologiae 

 Eirikur Magnusson, a native of that district, reached Berufjordr in 

 the month of June, and then, taking a boat, proceeded to the island, 

 round which he rowed, quite close enough to satisfy himself that 

 there were no gare-fowls on it ; but he was prevented by the unfavour- 

 able state of the weather from landing. On his return next month to 

 Reykjavik, he informed us that there were no traditions in that part 

 of the country of the bird ever having been there. Respecting the 

 second Geirfuglasker I have mentioned, that which forms one of theVest- 

 mannaeyjar, we heard on all sides that it was yearly visited by people 

 from the neighbouring islands, and, though we were told that some 

 fifteen years before a young bird had been obtained thence, f it was 

 quite certain that no great auks resorted thither now. 



Of the third locality 1 have now to speak. Lying off Cape Reyk- 

 janes, the south-western point of Iceland, is a small chain of volcanic 

 islets, commonly known as the Fuglasker, between which and the 

 shore, notwithstanding that the water is deep, there runs a rost (roost), 

 nearly always violent, and under certain conditions of wind and tide 

 such as no boat can live in. That which is nearest the land, being 

 about thirteen English miles distant, is called, by Icelanders, Eldey 

 (Fire Island), and by the Danish sailors Meel-ssekken (the Meal-sack), 

 a name, indeed, well applied ; for, seen from one direction at least, its 



* ' Forsog til en Islandsk Naturhistorie, &c.,' ved N. Mohr. Kjobenhavn, 1786, 

 p. 383. 



f Of course it does not follow, even if the story be true, that this bird was bred 

 there. Faber states (' Prodromus der islandischen Ornithologie,' Kopenhagen, 1022, 

 p. 49) that he was on the Westman Islands in July and August, 1821, and that a 

 peasant there told him it was twenty years since a great auk (and that the only one of 

 the species he had ever seen) had occurred there. He adds that this bird and its egg, 

 upon which it was taken, remained a long time in a warehouse on one of the islands, 

 but had vanished before his arrival. We may, with Professor Steeustrup (1. c. p. 76, 

 note), infer from this that the gare-fowl, even about the year 1800, was a great rarity 

 in the neighbourhood. 



