‘The Last of Its Kind’ records the search for a rare bird that results in a monumental discovery; but the book’s narrative form fails.
In Gisli Palsson’s new book, “The Last of Its Kind,” we are introduced to what the author notes in his subhead: “The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction.” It is an adventurous journey that results in a sobering discovery.
The book combines biographical material on two British ornithologists, John Wolley and Alfred Newton, as well as the North Atlantic bird, the great auk. Wolley and Newton set off for Iceland during the mid-19th century in search of this bird in order to capture it and some of its eggs for scientific purposes. The bird was a rare find, as the ornithologists came to realize. This rarity was for a profound reason, which, as Mr. Palsson makes clear, the researchers struggled to determine.
Unnatural Extinction
In the 1800s, the idea that mankind could cause animals’ extinction was an idea not merely misunderstood, but dismissed as impossible. Whether man could eliminate a species had apparently never been researched, and if it had, it was never documented. After Wolley and Newton failed to find the great auk, the two scientists resolved to conduct extensive interviews of Icelanders who lived near Eldey Island, the location known for the great auk’s last appearance. These interviews were consolidated into Wolley’s “The Gare-Fowl Books.” The “gare-fowl” was another name for the great auk.
