Pinguinus impennis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Ghiraldi, Luca & Aimassi, Giorgio, 2019, Extinct and endangered (‘ E & E’) birds in the ornithological collection of the Museum of Zoology of Torino University, Italy, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 139 (1), pp. 28-45 : 31

GREAT AUK Pinguinus impennis

Alca impennis Linnaeus, 1758

MZUT AV16261; mount; unsexed adult; Iceland, no date; from H. Vogt in 1832.

Remarks.—Giuseppe Gené (1800–47), Director of the Zoological Museum of Torino in 1831–47, purchased this specimen from a ‘Mr. Vogt’ in 1832 ( Salvadori 1915). It is noteworthy that Fatio (1868a) cited a specimen of P. impennis present in Neuchâtel museum ( Switzerland), purchased in Mannheim ( Germany) in 1832, by the same dealer Henri (= Heinrich) Vogt. This supports the hypothesis of Symington (2015) under which Vogt may have obtained several skins of P. impennis from what is now the Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen. The Great Auk in Torino is listed as no. 55 in Fuller (1999), wherein he stated that it seems reasonable to suppose that this specimen is one of 24 birds taken on Eldey ( Iceland) in 1831.

Even the specimen at the Museo Civico di Zoologia Roma came from the Copenhagen museum (in 1832), but its arrival in Italy was rather tortuous ( Arrigoni degli Oddi 1914, Marangoni & Gippoliti 2011). Furthermore, Fatio (1868b) reported three other specimens in the museums of Firenze, Milano and Torino, as well as an incomplete skeleton in Firenze. Violani et al. (1984) mentioned a second specimen housed in Milano, but not the skeleton in Firenze.