377 
in Iceland respecting the Gar e-fowl. 
enough. Herr Laurenz Brodtkorb, of Wardoe, in 1855, told Mr. 
Wolley, repeating the story afterwards in ray presence, that in 
1848 he shot a large diving-bird, of which he did not know the 
name, on a flat rocky skerry off Reenoe. He felt very certain that 
it was not a Great Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialis) ; but he 
assured us that its beak was like a Guillemot’s ( Uria )-—that is, 
narrow and pointed—and not like a Razor-bill’s ( Alca ), thick and 
truncated. He was equally sure that there was still a pair or two 
of his species to be found among the Guillemots which breed on 
this spot. Mr. Wolley, in a letter I received from him about this 
time (1855), naively remarks, “1 could not see one; but some of 
the birds were ofl* their eggs ;” and I feel bound to say that, 
though Herr Brodtkorb has a practical knowledge of ornitho¬ 
logy, I cannot consent to his opinion that the bird he shot was 
a Great Auk*. 
Were I about to give a full and detailed account of the Gare- 
fowl, I should think it best to divide the evidence collected into 
two classes : (I.) that which may be considered documentary, 
and (II.) that which is merely oral; again separating this latter 
into (1) what is only traditional, and (2) what has actually come 
to my informant’s personal knowledge. In the present case, how¬ 
ever, I believe it will be most convenient to take the various 
matters as far as possible in the order of the time to which they 
refer. But I must first enter upon a brief description of the 
localities to which I shall have to allude. 
Any person who will take in hand the beautiful map of Ice¬ 
land, executed by Herr 0. N. Olsen from the surveys of the 
veteran Bjorn Gunnlaugsson, and published in 1844 under the 
auspices of the Icelandic Literary Society t, will find the name 
* I may add, that near Wardoehuus, between the fortress and the shore 
of the inlet (Vest-Vaagen), on a raised sea-beach, is a vast bed of bones, 
chiefly those of birds, but mingled with them a few Seals’. We brought 
awav a considerable quantity of specimens; and on some other occasion I 
may probably give an account of them; but I am sure that they do not 
include a single fragment which could possibly be a Gare-fowl’s. 
t Uppdrattr I'slands, a fjorum bloftum gjo'Sr aft fyrirsogn O'. N. Olsens, 
gefinn fit af Enu I'slenzka Bokmentafelagi. Reykjavik og Kaupmanna- 
hofn, 1844. 
VOL. III. 2 c 
