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Most of the engraved illustrations in Museum Wormianum (Leiden, 1655) depict specimens from Ole Worm's private "Cabinet of Curiosities", the first natural history museum in Copenhagen. However this portrait of a Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) depicts the seventeenth-century scientist's pet, and is the only known record of the bird's existence in captivity. The white ring around its neck is a collar: later copies of this print show it as plumage. The Great Auk, a flightless seabird native to North Atlantic islands, was slaughtered for its soft feathers and tasty flesh. It became extinct in 1844.
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