376 Mr. A. Newton on Mr. J. Wolley's Researches 
ginated in the inadvertence of naturalists, which, in the case of 
northern localities, leads them to speak of Spitzbergen, Green¬ 
land, and Labrador as if they were synonymous, or at least in¬ 
terchangeable terms. Regarding it in this light, long before 
we had heard of Professor Steenstrup’s conclusions, Mr. Wolley 
and I had satisfied ourselves that statements like Temminck’s, 
that the Great Auk “ vit et se trouve habituellement sur les 
glaces flottantes du pole arctique, dont il ne s’eloigne qu^acci- 
dentellement ” (Man. d’Orn. ii. 940), were entirely contrary to 
fact. There is, I believe, but one reliable instance on record of 
the Gare-fowl* having occurred within the limits of the Arctic 
Circle. This is the example said to have been killed on Disco in 
1821, and which, after changing hands several times, is now in 
the University Museum at Copenhagen. The fact has been for 
the first time recorded in the present volume ( f Ibis/ 1861, 
p. 15), and my friend Professor Reinhardt there expresses his 
belief that ff the accounts of other instances, in which the bird is 
said to have been obtained in Greenland, are hardly to be con¬ 
fided inf” 
There is, I take it, nothing which should really lead us to infer 
that the Great Auk ever visited Spitzbergen J. The first English 
writer to whom I can trace the report is Mr. Selby (Brit. Orn. ii. 
p. 433) ; and that distinguished ornithologist has lately most 
kindly informed me that the making mention of that locality 
was a mistake, which would have been rectified had another 
edition of his work been required. As to Norway, the only sup¬ 
posed instance of its occurring there within the Arc tic Circle is that 
mentioned by Professor Steenstrup (Lc. p. 95, n.), and is doubtful 
* It may seem somewhat pedantic to revive this ancient and almost 
forgotten name. . In using it I am chiefly influenced by the fact that Mr. 
Wolley had intended to have employed it. 
t I have spoken of the above as a “ reliable instance ” of an Arctic Great 
Auk; but I am not sure that even this is free from doubt; for in a letter 
Professor Reinhardt tells me he has “ had some suspicion ” whether the 
reported Disco specimen of 1821 has not been confounded with one asserted 
by the late lamented Governor Holboll (Kroyer’s Tidsskrift, iv. p. 457) to 
have been obtained at Fiskernaes ( South Greenland) in 1815. If this 
suspicion he correct, the Gar e-fowl has probably never once occurred within 
the Arctic Circle. % Cf. Ibis, 1859, pp. 173, 174. 
