Part 37 (1/2)

_Northern Penguin_ Edwards, Nat. Hist. Uncommon B. etc., III p. 147 pl. 147 (1750--First good coloured plate, from a specimen from Newfoundland).

_Geyervogel_ Linnaeus, Fauna Suecica p. 43 no. 119 (1746).

_Alca impennis_ Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. X p. 130 (1758--Ex fauna Sueciva no. 119, Mus. Worm. l.c., Willoughby l.c., and Edwards l.c.); Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. XII, I, p. 210 (1766); Naumann, Nat. Voy. Deutschl. XII p. 630 pl. 337 (1844); Dresser, B. Europe VIII p. 563, pl. 620 (1880); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. III p. 371 (1885).

_Alca borealis_ Forster, Syn. Cat. Brit. B. p. 29 (1817--nomen nudum).

_Plautus impennis_ Brunnich, Zool. Fundamenta p. 78 (1772); Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer., II p. 467 (1884); Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXVI p. 563 (1898).

FOR FULL DESCRIPTIONS, LITERATURE, HISTORY, LIST OF REMAINS, SEE:--

_j.a.petus Steenstrup_: Bidrag til Geirfuglens Naturhistorie etc., Kjobenhavn (Copenhagen) 1857 (In Naturh-Forening. Vidensk. Meddel.

1855, nos. 3-7).

_Alfred Newton_: Abstract of Mr. Wolley's Researches in Iceland respecting the Gare-fowl. (In Ibis, 1861, pp. 374-399).

_William Preyer_: Ueber Plautus impennis. (In Journal f. Orn. 1862 pp. 110-124, 337-356.)

_Alfred Newton_: The Gare-fowl and its Historians. (In Natural History Review XII, 1865 pp. 467-488); id. in Encycl. Britannica Ed. IX vol. III; id. Dict. B. p. 220-221.

_Wilhelm Blasius_: Zur Geschichte von _Alca impennis_. Journ. f.

Orn. 1884 pp. 58-176.

_Symington Grieve_: The Great Auk, or Garefowl. Its History, Archaeology, and Remains. London 1885; Supplem. note on the Great Auk; in Trans. Edinburgh Field Nat. Soc. (1897) p. 238-273.

_Wilhelm Blasius_: Der Riesenalk, Alca impennis L. (In the New Edition of Naumann Naumann, Naturg. d. Vogel Mitteleuropas) Vol.

XII p. 169-208, plates 17, 17a-17d (1903).

Probably the first mention of Great Auks is that in Andre Thevet's book ”Les singularitez de la France antarctique ...,” Anvers 1558, where a large bird was mentioned under the name of ”Aponars,” Apponatz or ”Aponath.” But evidently this name covered several other sea-birds, and it is at least doubtful if it was solely applied to the Great Auk. The same applies to the remarks by Jacques Cartier, as translated in R. Hakluyt's collection of voyages. On the other hand there is no doubt that the ”Penguin” mentioned by Robert h.o.r.e in 1536 (Hakluyt, Collection of Voyages III, p. 129--1600, and other Editions) was actually the Great Auk. In fact ”Penguin” has been the name usually applied to the Great Auk {154} and is even now used for it by the French, while in most other languages it has been transferred, from an early date, to the Antarctic flightless birds, the _Spheniscidae_.

All the first reports are from Newfoundland and thereabout, and even Clusius (Exoticorum libri decem, Lib. V, p. 103--1605), who gives a rather poor but perfectly recognizable figure, describes it first (p. 103) as a native of America, under the name of ”Mergus America.n.u.s.” Later on, however, in the ”Auctarium,” on p. 367, he mentions it, on the authority of Henricus Hojerus, as found in the Faroe Islands, under the name ”Goirfugel.” Hojerus was also the authority for the account given in Nieremberg, Hist. Nat., etc., p. 215 (1635). The first comparatively good figure was published in 1655, in the ”Museum Wormianum,” on p. 301, from a specimen brought alive from the Faroe Islands. Curiously enough the figure shows a white ring round the neck, which no Great Auk, of course, possesses.

Linnaeus, when first bestowing a scientific name on the Great Auk, in 1758, l.c., gave the following short diagnosis and references:--

”Alca rostro compresso--ancipiti sulcato, macula ovata utrinque ante oculos. Fn. Svec. 119.

Anser magellanicus. Worm. mus. 300 t. 301.

Penguin. Will. ornith. 244 t. 65 Edw. av. 147 t. 147.

_Habitat in_ Europa _arctica_.”

From referring to the literature he quotes, there can, of course, be no doubt as to what species he refers.

The most detailed descriptions are probably those given in the New Edition of Naumann (see above), where also a list of literature and figures is given, fully seven folio pages long! As regards the difference in the s.e.xes little is known, because very few specimens exist of which the s.e.x has been ascertained. We find, however, some with the grooves and ridges on the bill more marked, and the grooves purer white, while others have the grooves of a dirtier white and less strongly developed; as these latter are apparently mostly smaller, I think they must be females, the former males. In this case my two specimens would be females, and the one now in Professor Koenig's possession an adult male. Probably somewhat similar seasonal changes took place as in _Alca torda_, and Professor Blasius (l.c.) has described them. It must, however, be remembered, that the date of capture is known of but a few examples, and that by far the majority of all those that exist in collections have been killed in spring, on their breeding-places.

n.o.body can doubt that the Great Auk is extinct. The last specimens were obtained on Eldey, near Iceland, in 1844, and the seas and islands {155} where the great bird used to live are frequented by vessels every year. It is true that a certain Lorenz Brodtkorb told that in April, 1848, he saw four Great Auks, of which he shot one, near the Varanger Fjord, east of the North-Cape, but Professor Newton and Wolley have, in 1855, had an interview with Brodtkorb, and came to the conclusion that he saw and shot the Great Northern Diver. This is the more likely to be the case, as the occurrence north of the Arctic Circle is as yet uncertain, the finding of Great Auks both on the island of Disco (west-coast of Greenland) and on Grimsey and Mevenklint on the north coast of Iceland being open to doubt.

From sub-fossil and prehistoric finds, we know that the Great Auk formerly inhabited Norway and Sweden, Denmark, with Seeland, Sejero and Havno, the British Islands (Cleadon Hills in County Durham, Scotland, Ireland), the east coast of North America from Labrador to Florida.

In historic times we know of the occurrence on the islands near Labrador, Greenland--where it certainly used to breed on the east coast, but was probably only of rare and exceptional occurrence on the west coast--Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Fair Island between the Orkney and Shetland Islands (doubtful), Orkneys (Papa Westra), St. Kilda, Skye, and Waterford Harbour in Ireland. But as breeding stations within historic times the following only are absolutely certain:--