Supplementary note on the great auk or garefowl (Alca impennis Linn) / by Symington Grieve.

  • Grieve, Symington.
Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Supplementary note on the great auk or garefowl (Alca impennis Linn) / by Symington Grieve. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/72 page 247
    1896-97-] son. The latter is a very intelligent young man of nineteen years, and extremely fond of watching and taking notes of the habits of wild birds frequenting the island. He is described by Mr Thomson in his pamphlet, ‘ A Cruise off the Western Hebrides,’ as the “ rara avis of St Kilda.” Alexander Ferguson takes a keen interest in natural history, and has ' made authentic notes of the arrival and departure of the various species of birds that frequent that lonely island. Strange to say, last summer many of the islanders together with Ferguson noticed a pair of birds similar in shape to the razorbill, but twice the size of that bird. They were unable to get close enough to identify those birds. The description, however, tallies with the extinct Great Auk. Can it be possible that these birds were the Great Auk ? To obtain a single specimen of this species of bird would be a small fortune to any one. In a former paper to this Society I referred to models of the Great Auk.1 In a letter dated 6th October 1888, Dr J. E. Harting of the Linnean Society, London, and Editor of the ‘ Zoologist,’ drew my attention to the description of a model Greak Auk which appeared in his magazine in 1880, p. 516, and which was written by Dr Harting himself. He also mentioned to me the model offered for sale at the auction rooms of Mr J. C. Stevens, 38 King Street, Covent Garden, London, 21st August 1888, lot 116, which Dr Harting says was described as follows: “ A feather model of the Great Auk, constructed from observations made from genuine speci- mens in the possession of Viscount Hill, John Crocke, Escp” (evidently John Eocke is intended), “ and Mr Foljambe re- spectively, and made according to Yarrell’s description of the true bird.” In reply to my inquiries, Mr J. C. Stevens kindly wrote me on 19tli March 1897: “I find a model of the Great Auk was offered for sale 21st August 1888. The reserve price was £30, and I believe I had a bid of £20 for it. It was, as far as I can remember, a very perfect model. Another model was offered about eighteen months ago, but that I failed to get a purchaser for.” On the 19th October 1888 I called with my wife at the shop of a dealer in London who was quite a stranger to me, but who had at that time in his possession an egg of the Great Auk. I found that the dealer was not in, and that the egg I wanted to see was at another place of business of his. The manager, however, said they had another egg of 1 ‘Trans. Ediu. Field Nat. and Micro. Soc.,’ vol. ii. p. 118.
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