Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Monday 14 December 1953, page 4


'Great Auk' Hoax Caused Blushes

From Our Soeciol Representative

NEW YOBK.DW IS

Americas 'great auK mystery,' which has been the sensation of the tJ8 bird world for nearlv two

years, is a mystery no more. It has turned out to be nothing but a big-toed sand lark— and America's top bird experts are blushing. The 'great auk' sensation started when an earlymorning stroller found its amazing tracks on Mantoloking Beach, New Jersey, 21 months ago. The prints were enormous —18 inches long, 9 inches across and web-shaped. Schoolchildren' came in classes to see them. Newspapers took photographs. Professors made plaster casts. Ornithologists thought it might be a throwback to an extinct species. Weather washed the prints away, but within a

iew aay* mere were more. : Bird - watchers camped overnight on the beach. -'? Nobody got a glimpse of it, but whenever things got dull in Mantoloking, the bird came back. / At the .week-end, a retired insurance broker, Jim Turner, couldn't keep the joke to himself, any longer. He announced :— 'One professor said it was the genus Diomedea lalbatrus, but it . was only the genus James J. Turner/ Jun.' /f*'..-'- ' Then he dipped in a cupboard and hauled out the two jiant bird's claws he made by gluing stones, cork, brass, linoleum and plywood to the soles of an old pair of shoes. To the hoaxed,, embarrassed bird experts he explained, apologetically:— 'It tets awfully, quie't around here in winter. I Just thought up.' .? ? ? ..?..?? ?-. -,?