of the Great Auk during the past three centuries. That it
frequented the coast of Denmark in prehistoric times is shown
by the discovery of its remains in the kitchen-middens of
Jutland and Zealand, and there is even some evidence of its
occurrence there so late as the beginning of the present
century. In Scotland, Dr. Smith has described and figured
the remains obtained in the middens of Caithness; some
bones were recently discovered on the Island of Oronsay in
Argyllshire (J. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 479); and it is stated
(N. H. Tr. Northumb. vii. pp. 361, 363) that remains of this
bird were found in 1878 in some old sea-caves in the Cleadon
Hills, Durham. In America its bones have been disinterred
from the middens of Maine.
As regards the specimens of the Great Auk still existing
in collections, various lists have from time to time been published
by Professor Newton and others ; the former tells the
Editor that he estimates their number at seventy-seven skins
or mounted birds, and there are sixty-nine egg-shells. In
general coloration the latter resemble those of the Razor-bill,
but some of them exhibit a distinctly green tinge, and an
approach to the scrolling of the Guillemot; average measurements,
4-9 by 2‘7 in.
In summer plumage the bill is black, very strong, compressed,
and marked with several lateral furrows; the irides
reddish-brown; between the beak and the eye an oval patch
of white ; head, chin, and throat, hind neck, back, wings,
and tail black; the ends of the secondary wing-feathers
white; breast, and all the under surface of the body white;
legs, toes, and their membranes black. The whole length
of the bird is thirty-two inches; the wing from the wrist to
the end of the longest quill-feather seven inches; of the
longest feather alone but four inches and a quarter.
Dr. Fleming’s specimen had the chin, throat, and front
of the neck white. Fox, in reference to the specimen in the
Tunstall collection of the Newcastle Museum, says, “ Our
bird is apparently a young one, the neck black, spotted,
or mottled with white; upper mandible of the bill with one
large sulcus at the base, none at the tip ” (Synopsis, p. 92).
P YGOPODES. ALC1 DJi.
U r ia t r o il e (Linnaeus*).
THE COMMON GUILLEMOT,
WILLOCK, OR TINKERSHERE.
Uria troile.
Uria, Brissonf.—Bill of moderate length, strong, straight, pointed, compressed
; upper mandible slightly curved near the point, with a small indentation
or notch in the edge on each side. Nostrils basal, lateral, concave, pierced
longitudinally, partly closed by membrane, which is also partly covered with
feathers. Feet short, placed behind the centre of gravity in the body ; legs
slender, feet with only three toes, all in front, entirely webbed. Wings short,
first quill-feather the longest. Tail short.
The C ommon G u il l em o t so closely resembles the Razorbill
in the localities it frequents; in the time of its movements
; in its manners, habits, and food ; in its general
* Colymbus Troile, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 220 (1/66).
t Ornithologie, vi. p. 70 (1760).