The Garefowl was the Anglicised name of the Geirfugl, which is the Norse name for the Great Auk. Geir means spear and fugl means bird. The "geir" may refer to the spear or wedge-shaped wings or head and bill. In my part of the world- the North Atlantic- the Great Auk is our Dodo, a potent symbol of extinction. The last Great Auks were killed by Danish collectors in 1844 on the island of Eldey, in southwest Iceland. One of the most important colonies of this impressive, flightless seabird was Funk Island off Newfoundland. I work on the birds of Funk Island but sadly, the closest I've some to a Great Auk is some bones I was given by a friend who worked on the island in the 1980s; the rarest of rare, the bones of an extinct animal. I keep the bones in my office and look at them and touch them often. Fishermen arriving in North America on their way to the huge cod fishery off the Grand Banks would stop at the Funks and kill birds for food, oil and feathers. Being flightless they were defenseless and by 1800 they were extinct there. English-speaking people also called Great Auks "penguins", indeed they were known as penguins before science knew about the penguins of the southern hemisphere. They were the first penguins and in my mind the southern ones are just pretenders! The ordinal name of the southern penguins is Sphenisciformes, and "spheniscus" means wedge-shaped. I don't think there is any direct connection to "geir" in the name of the first penguin, but the connection fascinates me.
I'm not a print collector but have a few. I love this one of mine of the Great Auk from Thomas Pennant's "British Zoology" published in 1771-1776. I hope you enjoy it.
Last edited by John Chardine; 04-30-2011 at 08:59 PM.
Great story and love the history of the penguins. I too love the prints and at one time considered laying off photography and trying my hand at drawing birds. Have not opened the kit yet, maybe when I retire.