A few years ago he had completed the first Icelandic rendering of On the Origin of Species. Guðmundsson told me that in his spare time he did translating. Guðmundsson is an expert on foraminifera, tiny marine creatures that form intricately shaped shells, known as “tests.” On our way to see the bird, we stopped at his office, which was filled with boxes of little glass tubes, each containing a sampling of tests that rattled like sprinkles when I picked it up. Guðmundur Guðmundsson, who’s now the institute’s deputy director, had been assigned the task of showing me the auk. (One woman I spoke to, who was ten years old at the time, recalled emptying her piggy bank for the effort.) Icelandair provided two free seats for the homecoming, one for the institute’s director and the other for the boxed bird. The Institute of Natural History solicited donations, and within three days Icelanders contributed the equivalent of ten thousand British pounds to buy the auk back. Raben took the specimen home to his castle, and it remained in private hands until 1971, when it came up for auction in London. The bird’s carcass was purchased by a Danish count, Frederik Christian Raben, who had come to Iceland expressly to acquire an auk for his collection (and had nearly drowned in the attempt). Iceland enjoys the dubious distinction of being the bird’s last known home, and the specimen I’d come to look at was killed somewhere in the country-no one is sure of the exact spot-in the summer of 1821. The reason I’d arranged to visit the institute was to see its great auk. These specimens, as I learned on the day of my own appointment, include: a stuffed tiger, a stuffed kangaroo, and a cabinet full of stuffed birds of paradise. It was designed as a research facility, with no public access, which means that a special appointment is needed to see any of the specimens in the institute’s collection. The building has a tilted roof and tilted glass walls and looks a bit like the prow of a ship. The Icelandic Institute of Natural History occupies a new building on a lonely hillside outside Reykjavik. Published February 2014 by Henry Holt and Company.

Excerpted from THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert.

The 6th extinction book