The Range of the Garefowl (Alca impennis)

Abstract

IN 1856 the late Dr. Gray obtained for the British Museum an example of this extinct species from the collection of the late Prof. van Lidth de Jeude of Utrecht, and for some reason unknown to me had the locality “Labrador” painted on its stand. As I had been informed with certainty by the late Prof. J. T. Reinhardt that this specimen was one of those sent to Copenhagen from Iceland, I corrected the error in The Natural History Review of October 1865 (vol. v. p. 473, note), and (he correction has since been generally accepted. It is therefore with some regret that I find the old error repeated in the recently published volume of the “Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum” (vol. xxvi. p. 564), and the error is rather a serious one in the absence of evidence of the species having inhabited the coast of Labrador, as well as that of any skin of proved Transatlantic origin. I may also mention that on the same page of the “Catalogue,” the date of Bullock's Orcadian specimen is wrongly given as 1812 instead of 1813.