8122 



Birds. 



under the wing, and the skins stuffed with hay, the bones being wrapped 

 round with hemp. The eggs were quite fresh, and were blown by the 

 two ladies. All these specimens were disposed of to Herr De Liagre, 

 a dealer at Hamburg, and, I may add, I think that one of the eggs 

 now in my possession belonged to this lot. In August, 1840 or 1841, 

 three skins, as many eggs, and the body of a bird in spirit, were bought 

 of Factor Chr. Thaae, now living at Copenhagen, by Herr S. Jacobsen, 

 who told us that he parted with them either to Herr Seining, a natu- 

 ralist at Hamburg, or to Mr. Jamrach, the well-known dealer. Two 

 of these birds, or else two more some other year, were obtained by one 

 Stephan Sveinsson, of Kalmanstjorn, whom the good people of Kyrk- 

 juvogr seem to look upon as a kind of poacher on what they consider 

 their rightful domain. Certain it is that on one occasion Herr Thaae 

 bought two birds of this Stephan, as the latter informed us, but the 

 exact date is not so clear. 



The last gare-fowls known to have occurred in Iceland were two in 

 number, caught and killed in 1844 by a party, of which our excellent 

 host at Kyrkjuvogr, Vilhjalmur Hakonarsson, was the leader. They 

 were bought, singularly enough, by Herr Christian Hansen, son of that 

 Hansen I have before alluded to as having been (though, in the first 

 instance, against his will) so dread a scourge to the race. From him 

 they passed to Herr Miiller, then the apothecary at Reykjavik, who, 

 previously to having them skinned, prevailed upon M. Vivien (a French 

 artist) to paint a picture of one of the dead birds, which picture now 

 hangs in the house of his successor, Herr Randrup, the present 

 apothecary in the capital of Iceland. As many persons may regard 

 these birds as the latest survivors of their species, I may perhaps be 

 excused for relating at some length the particulars of their capture, 

 the more so as this will serve to explain the manner followed on former 

 occasions. 



The party consisted of fourteen men : two of these are dead, but 

 with all the remaining twelve we conversed. They were commanded, 

 as I have just said, by Vilhjalmur, and started in an eight-oared boat 

 from Kyrkjuvogr, one evening between the 2nd and 5th of June, 1844. 

 The next morning early they arrived off Eldey. In form the island is 

 a precipitous stack, perpendicular nearly all round. The most lofty 

 part has been variously estimated to be from fifty to seventy fathoms 

 in height ; but on the opposite side a shelf (generally known as the 

 " Underland") slopes up from the sea to a considerable elevation, until 

 it is terminated abruptly by the steep cliff of the higher portion. At 

 the foot of this inclined plane is the only landing-place ; and further 



