Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/222

200 this bird agreed so well with what might be given of the Garefowl, Alca impennis, that he considered it worth the while of some qualified person to proceed to Suderoe and investigate the matter.

Being desirous of examining the coal-beds (lignite) of Suderoe, the additional prospect of obtaining information about a rare bird added zest to my wishes, and a journey of a fortnight, during which I visited the islands of Saudoe, Skuoe, Great Dimon, as well as Suderoe, was the result.

On arriving at Porkere, in Suderoe, towards the end of May, 1872, I made enquiries about the rare bird that had been shot there; but only elicited that an uncommon bird, a Rook (Corvus frugilegus), had been procured the previous winter. Being almost ignorant of Danish, and knowing nothing of Færoese, I was certainly not a competent person to institute an enquiry amongst people who had no acquaintance with English.

Alter my return to Thorshavn, on mentioning the result of my researches to Herr Müller, he was not satisfied that I had got to the bottom of the matter, and he agreed to make further enquiries through the Sysselmand (magistrate) of Suderoe.

In the following year (1873) a deposition was made before the Sysselmand of Suderoe by the parties who killed the bird, supposed possibly to have been a Gare-fowl (Alca impennis); and Herr Müller kindly sent me a copy of the document in question, which I received just prior to my embarkation for foreign service, in 1873. However, being placed on one side, it escaped my memory until a few days ago, when it accidentally turned up.

Though fully five years have elapsed since the deposition was made, I think it is deserving of record, not because it is in itself satisfactory evidence of the appearance of the Gare-fowl of late years in Færoe, but because it is a statement which, in all probability, will be handed down as a tradition in those islands of an actual capture of a Gare-fowl, and our successors may lament the apparent want of energy on our part in not having thoroughly investigated the circumstance at the time. I therefore, without further apology, append a translation of the deposition.

"1, the undersigned Jacob Müller, of Porkere, hereby declare, according to truth, that one day in the month of November, 1870, when in company