A strange-looking bird - alas now extinct - looks even stranger in Staffordshire taxidermists' unique recreation

Slimline - Barry Williams' version of the great auk

IS  this what a great auk really looked like?

The long-extinct species has been reimagined and recreated by Staffordshire-based taxidermist Barry Williams as being much slimmer than in most other depictions.

It also has a somewhat strangely located left eye.

Enclosed within a five-glass display case, measuring  58cm by 36cm by 88.5cm, it is due to go under the hammer at a sale due to be held on April 17 by auction house Tennants of Leyburn in North Yorkshire.

The pre-sale estimate is that it will fetch between £1,200 and £1,800.

                                             

Here's looking at you - the eye has it!