astly from Philip Island. Peace
to its ashes!

Mr Yarrell, in his "History of British Birds,"[65] commences his account
of one of them in these words:--"The Great Auk is a very rare British
Bird, and but few instances are recorded of its capture. The natives in
the Orkneys informed Mr Bullock, on his tour through these islands
several years ago, that only one male had made its appearance for a long
time, which had regularly visited Papa Westra for several seasons. The
female, which the natives call the queen of the Auks, was killed just
before Mr Bullock's arrival. The king or male, Mr Bullock had the
pleasure of chasing for several hours in a six-oared boat, but without
being able to kill him, for though he frequently got near him, so expert
was the bird in its natural element that it appeared impossible to shoot
him. The rapidity with which he pursued his course under water was
almost incredible. About a fortnight after Mr Bullock had left Papa
Westra, this male bird was obtained and sent him, and at the sale of his
collection, was purchased for the British Museum, where it is still
carefully preserved."

This fine bird, which was larger than a goose, is believed to be
extinct. Mr Bullock's specimen was taken in 1812; another was captured
at St Kilda in 1822, another was picked up dead near Lundy Island in
1829, and yet another was taken in 1834, off the coast of Waterford.

On the north coast of Europe the bird is equally rare; not more than
two or three, at the utmost, having been procured during the present
century. During that period, however, it has haunted one or two
breeding-rocks on the south coast of Iceland, in some abundance. In the
years 1830 and 1831, as many as twenty-seven were obtained there, and
from that time till 1840, about ten more. The last birds obtained on the
Iceland coast were a pair, which were shot on their nest in 1844. The
last taken in any locality, so far as is known, was one shot in 1848, by
a peasant, on the Island of Wardoe, within the Arctic Circle.

Two centuries ago, the Great Auk was not uncommon on the shores of New
England; and, off the great fishing-banks of Newfoundland, it appears to
have been very abundant. "Its appearance was always hailed by the
mariner approaching that desolate coast as the first indication of his
having reached soundings on the fishing-banks. During the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries these waters, as well as the Iceland and Faroe
coasts, were a