_Le Géant_ Leguat, Voyages (1708), p. 171, English edition. _Leguatia gigantea_ Schlegel, Versl. Med. Akad. Wetensch. Amst. VII, p. 142 (1858). Leguat's description is as follows: "... and many of those birds called giants, because they are six feet high. They are extremely high mounted, and have very long necks. Their bodies are not bigger than that of a goose. They are all white, except a little place under their wings, which is reddish. They have a goose's bill, only a little sharper; their claws are very long and divided." This bird was apparently confined to the island of Mauritius. Professor Newton asserts that Leguat's "Géants" were Flamingos, principally because bones of Flamingos have been found in Mauritius and not a single bone has ever been got of the "géant." This argument is, in my opinion, insufficient, and no evidence at all. We know that a Didine bird and a gigantic rail existed on Réunion, but no bones are yet known of these. I think, like Professor Schlegel, that Leguat's figure and description cannot be meant for a Flamingo and that they prove the former existence of a gigantic ralline bird in Mauritius. The figure is made up from Leguat's description. The bill is drawn like that of a gigantic moorhen, and so are the feet. Habitat: Mauritius. {153} ALCA IMPENNIS L. THE GREAT AUK. (PLATE 38.) _Penguin_ Hore, in Hakluyt's Coll. Voyages III p. 129 (Ed. 1600--ex Hore). _Anser Magelanicus s. Pinguinus_ Worm, Museum Wormianum, Lib. III, Cap. 19, p. 300, 301 (1655--Figured from a specimen from the Faröe Islands). _Penguin_ Willoughby, Orn. Lib. III p. 242 pl. 65 (1676). _Northern Penguin_ Edwards, Nat. Hist. Uncommon B. etc., III p. 147 pl. 147 (1750--First good coloured plate, from a specimen from Newfoundland). _Geyervogel_ Linnaeus, Fauna Suecica p. 43 no. 119 (1746). _Alca impennis_ Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. X p. 130 (1758--Ex fauna Sueciva no. 119, Mus. Worm. l.c., Willoughby l.c., and Edwards l.c.); Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. XII, I, p. 210 (1766); Naumann, Nat. Voy. Deutschl. XII p. 630 pl. 337 (1844); Dresser, B. Europe VIII p. 563, pl. 620 (1880); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. III p. 371 (1885). _Alca borealis_ Forster, Syn. Cat. Brit. B. p. 29 (1817--nomen nudum). _Plautus impennis_ Brünnich, Zool. Fundamenta p. 78 (1772); Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer., II p. 467 (1884); Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXVI p. 563 (1898). FOR FULL DESCRIPTIONS, LITERATURE, HISTORY, LIST OF REMAINS, SEE:-- _Japetus Steenstrup_: Bidrag til Geirfuglens Naturhistorie etc., Kjöbenhavn (Copenhagen) 1857 (In Naturh-Forening. Vidensk. Meddel. 1855, nos. 3-7).