676 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
they drove the Garefowl there to wait until they should be required 
for use.” 
******* 
“ Having a strong wish to secure some relics of this bird, and my 
time for their discovery being limited to less than an hour, it was 
with considerable excitement that I rushed from point to point and 
overturned the turf. At nearly every trial bones were found ; but 
there was nothing that could be identified as ever having belonged 
to the bird, for which I searched. At the eleventh hour the tide 
turned, and in a small grassy hollow, between two huge boulders, on 
the lifting of the first sod I recognised an alcine beak. That rare 
element called luck was in operation. In less than half an hour 
specimens indicating the pre-existence of at least fifty of these birds 
were exhumed. The bones were found only from 1 foot to 2 feet 
below the surface, and in places even projected through the soil into 
the underground habitations of the Puffins. With the exception 
of one small tibia and two or three tips of long and thin beaks, 
probably those of the Tern, all the bones were those of the Great 
Auk.” 
******* 
“ In several cases whilst exhuming the skeletons I noticed that 
the vertebrae followed each other successively, and were evidently 
in the same position which they occupied when in the live bird. 
This is in part confirmed by one curious case, where the rootlet of 
some plant has grown through the neural canal and expanded so at 
to fix the vertebrae in position. This, together with the fact that 
there remains no evidence of cuts or blows, leads to the supposition 
that these birds may have died peacefully. Nevertheless, it may be 
that they were the remains of some great slaughter, when the birds 
had been killed, parboiled, and despoiled only of their feathers, 
after which they were thrown in a heap such as the one I have 
just described.” 
Mr Milne also alludes to a considerable difference in size which 
he observed in several of the bones, but states that the only trace 
of the bird having been used as fuel was a single burnt fragment of 
a sacrum. It is, however, possible that with more time at his 
disposal he might have made further researches which would have 
thrown some light on traditional records bearing on this subject. 
