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.

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    1897-98.] referring to other discoveries: “ I myself, partaking in the ex- cavations of still later years, have found the following speci- mens, all of them in kitchen-middens of the Stone Age :— Sejrd, a small island to the north-west of Zeeland, the lower parts of two right humeri. Havnd, on the northern shore of the Mariager Fjord (for- merly an island), two right humeri and one ulna, as men- tioned at p. 61, ‘Fuglene ved de danske, Fyr 1, 1894.’ Ertebolle, on the shore of the Limfjord, south of Logstor, the lower part of a left humerus. I am just engaged in a review of the large mass of bones from kitchen - middens brought together by the late Prof. Steenstrup, but hitherto mostly undetermined. Bones of the Great Auk are turning up there, so that it will be useless now to give a list of the specimens from the old finding-places.” In the paper I have referred to by C. G. Joh. Petersen, Herluf Winge, and Oluf Winge on the “ Animal Remains from dwellings of the earlier and later Stone Age,” they refer the deposits in the kitchen-midden at Meilgaard to the earlier Stone Age, so we may naturally expect to find remains of Alca impennis Linn, being discovered in the kitchen-middens of later date. Mould or cast of egg of Alca impennis Linn, found in a geological deposit.—Having heard from Mr Bidwell on 16th June 1898 that Herr Herluf Winge had mentioned to him that a hollow cast or mould of an egg of Alca impennis Linn, had been found in a geological deposit, I asked Herr Herluf Winge kindly to send me particulars. If such a discovery has been made, it is, I believe, the first time any remains of the Great Auk have been discovered in a geological deposit, and must take back the existence of the Great Auk to a much earlier period than most of those interested in the bird supposed. Herr Herluf Winge wrote me on 2nd July 1898 as follows: “ A hollow cast of an egg of the Great Auk, con- taining some colour-markings, was found in a deposit from the sub-glacial period in the southern part of Sweden, to the north-east of Falsterbo, by members of the Swedish Geological Survey. Through personal acquaintance the discovery was made known in Copenhagen, and the cast was determined by
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