Great Auk Research Articles

Great Auk and Common Murre from a Florida Midden

Great Auk and Common Murre from a Florida Midden

Notes on the Great Auk in Nova Scotia

Notes on the Great Auk in Nova Scotia

Great Auk Remains from a Florida Shell Midden

Great Auk Remains from a Florida Shell Midden

Nature‘s Own Zoo

IN this attractive book Rear-Admiral Beadnell gathers together for boys and girls a series of true stories of some of the wonders of Nature, and of some remarkable and well-authenticated occurrences in the world of Nature. The whole book will be a source of joy and learning to the young, and even their elders will find much of interest in it. Who of us, for example, knew that the word ‘penguin' is derived from the name ‘pinwing', or ‘pinion-wing', given centuries ago by the fishermen of Newfoundland to the great auk? The name has now been attached to the penguin, a bird unknown in the northern hemisphere. Nature‘s Own Zoo By C. M. Beadnell. Pp. x + 141 + 8 plates. (London: Watts and Co., Ltd., 1948.) 7s. 6d. net.

XIV.—Early Drawings of the Great Auk and Gannet made in the Isle of Man in 1652

XIV.—<i>Early Drawings of the Great Auk and Gannet made in the Isle of Man in</i> 1652

Great Auk in the Isle of Man

Great Auk in the Isle of Man

An Early Figure of the Great Auk

An Early Figure of the Great Auk

Important Collections for Harvard Museum

Two great collections have recently been added, according to Science Service, to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. John Eliot Thayer has presented his series of thirty thousand specimens of bird skins, forming probably the finest private collection of North American birds. The collection also contains many thousands of nests and eggs. Some of the specimens are very valuable: extinct birds include the Labrador duck, the Eskimo curlew, and the passenger pigeon. There are ten eggs of the extinct great auk, and several of the California condor, which is becoming very rare. The second collection, bequeathed by Andrew Gray Weeks, contains some 75,000 specimens of butterflies and moths, many being type specimens. The former owner also left to the museum a fund for the care and increase of thecollection.

News and Views

ALTHOUGH it has been exhibited there before, the walrus is sufficiently rare in captivity to make the recent acquisition of two young specimens by the Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park, London, a noteworthy event. Walruses are delicate animals in captivity, perhaps because those that come to land are young, tuskless individuals. It is said that the walrus-cub is suckled by its dam until the tusks appear, so that it may be that the change from the maternal milk diet is at the root of the trouble. At the same time, there is no doubt that some species exhibit innately poor viability in captivity, and that these are sometimes the most robust-looking, and not highly specialised in diet: thus, the gorilla is delicate as well as the walrus, and the capercailzie is the most difficult subject of all the game-birds. The walrus is not only interesting scientifically, but also is a good popular exhibit, for its face exhibits a curiously close caricature of humanity. It would seem, therefore, that Tacitus was playing the arm-chair critic when he cynically suggested (“Annals”, ii. 24) that the “marine monsters, forms half-human, half-bestial”, told of by returned legionaries of Germanicus after a storm in the North Sea which drove some of them as far as the coasts of Britain, might have been “conjured up by their fears”; for the walrus, which even at the present day occasionally visits our northern coasts, would no doubt have been well in evidence farther south at that date—the early years of the first century of our era. These men also reported “unknown birds”, which were also probably not imaginary, as the Great Auk would be equally likely with the walrus to be present and attract attention there and then.

Sale of a Great Auk

Sale of a Great Auk

XXI.—Remains of the great auk and ptarmigan in the Channel Islands

XXI.—<i>Remains of the great auk and ptarmigan in the Channel Islands</i>

The Great Auk: A Record of Sales of Birds and Eggs by Public Auction in Great Britain, 1806–1910

The Great Auk: A Record of Sales of Birds and Eggs by Public Auction in Great Britain, 1806–1910

Parkins' Record of Sales of the Great Auk and Its Eggs The Great Auk. A Record of Sales of Birds and Eggs by Public Auction in Great Britain, 1806-1910 Thomas Parkin

Parkins' Record of Sales of the Great Auk and Its Eggs The Great Auk. A Record of Sales of Birds and Eggs by Public Auction in Great Britain, 1806-1910 Thomas Parkin

Great Auk Eggs in the Thayer Museum

Great Auk Eggs in the Thayer Museum

(1) Ootheca Wolleyana: an Illustrated Catalogue of the Collection of Birds' Eggs formed by the late John Wolley (2) Eggs of the Native Birds of Britain and List of British Birds, Past and Present

IN the first of these two books Prof. Newton makes good progress with the catalogue of the unrivalled collection of eggs to which it is devoted, dealing in this instance with the pigeons, game-birds, rails, cranes, bustards, waders, gulls, and auks. Needless to say, it is written in the same style as its two predecessors, consisting almost entirely of Mr. Wolley's original notes, with such comments as the editor considered it advisable to intercalate here and there. To review the fasciculus is impossible within the limits of our space, and we can only refer to a few points of special interest. One of these relates to the eggs of the knot, of which a presumed specimen, laid in confinement, was given to the author by Lord Lilford; the correctness of this identification has been recently confirmed by the discovery of “wild” specimens. Equally interesting is the record of the first known egg of the stint, obtained by Middendorf in Siberia in 1843. The culminating interest of this fasciculus is, however, concentrated on the superb series of eggs of the great auk possessed by Mr. Wolley, which included no less than seven actual specimens, together with several casts. The first of the originals the author bought in 1846 for twenty-eight shillings; it may, perhaps, be now worth ten times as many pounds! Coloured figures (two of each) of the seven auks' eggs and of one of the casts form the illustrations to this fasciculus; and in the execution of these plates Mr. H. Grönvold has surpassed himself, having succeeded not only in showing the colouring and markings to perfection, but also in imitating to a nicety the very grain and texture of the shell. The eight specimens show very clearly the range of variation to which the colour and markings of the eggs of the species were subject. (1) Ootheca Wolleyana: an Illustrated Catalogue of the Collection of Birds' Eggs formed by the late John Wolley. Edited by Alfred Newton. Part iii., Columbæ to Alcæ. (London: R. H. Porter, 1905.) Price 2l. 2s. (2) Eggs of the Native Birds of Britain and List of British Birds, Past and Present. By W. J. Gordon. Pp. 64; 398 illustrations. (London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 3s. 6d.

Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Vogelwelt Islands

SINCE Iceland lies on one of the main migration routes, namely, that which starts from Greenland and Iceland itself, and passes by the Fasroes to the British Islands, its bird-fauna is naturally of special interest and importance. This is testified by the appearance within a comparatively short period of two works on the subject, namely, Mr. H. N. Slater's “Manual of the Birds of Iceland,” published at Edinburgh in 1901, and the present larger and more pretentious volume. In addition to the general fauna, there is special interest attaching to Iceland as the chief European resort in former days of the gare-fowl, or great auk. The history of this lost bird and the literature relating to it the author reserves for a supplemental volume. Despite all that has been done by travellers and collectors, Mr. Hantzsch is of opinion that our knowledge of the bird-fauna of Iceland is still far from complete, much of the interior of the country being difficult of access and still imperfectly explored by collectors. Accordingly he is fain to admit that the last word on the subject still remains to be said. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Vogelwelt Islands. By B. Hantzsch. Pp. vi + 341; illustrated. (Berlin: Friedländer and Son, 1905.) Price 12 marks.

The Purchase of a Great Auk for the Thayer Museum at Lancaster, Mass

The Purchase of a Great Auk for the Thayer Museum at Lancaster, Mass

On the Finding of the Bones of the Great Auk (Plautus impennis) in Florida

On the Finding of the Bones of the Great Auk (Plautus impennis) in Florida

Recent Papers on the Great Auk

Recent Papers on the Great Auk

Note on some newly‐discovered Eggs of the Great Auk

IbisVolume 36, Issue 3 p. 422-423 Note on some newly-discovered Eggs of the Great Auk Edward Bidwell, Edward BidwellSearch for more papers by this author Edward Bidwell, Edward BidwellSearch for more papers by this author First published: July 1894 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1894.tb03574.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume36, Issue3July 1894Pages 422-423 RelatedInformation