48 THE GREAT AUK 



Magdalene College, Cambridge, 

 March 17, 1894. 



MY DEAR HARTING, 



My letter to D'Hamonville, which he quoted in 

 the Bulletin, was written to correct the statement he 

 had made in the Memoires of the French Zool. 

 Soc., 1888 (p. 225), and the point of it was to show that 

 Yarrell had bought his egg of Alca impennis in France, 

 but whether at Boulogne or in Paris did not, for the 

 purpose I had in view, signify so I merely expressed 

 my belief without turning up the evidence. It was only 

 the other day when the " whaler " made a public appear- 

 ance that the place where it was bought became a con- 

 sideration of any importance. Then I looked into the 

 matter with the result that you know. I have not much 

 doubt that old Bond, to the end of his days, honestly 

 believed that the Great Auk inhabited the ' Arctic 

 Regions " ; but then he never cared to inform himself 

 very accurately on points of this kind, and would not 

 recognise the improbability (I might say the impossibility) 

 of a " whaler " bringing home one of its eggs or even 

 a dozen of them. 



If I were to correct or refute all the incorrect stories 

 about this bird, which are published from time to time, 

 I should have enough to do. Even when they concern 

 myself I am generally content to leave them alone, just 

 as I left alone an astounding statement in the Field 

 of December 17, 1887, about my discovery of the ten 

 eggs in the College of Surgeons Museum, or one in the 

 Standard of February 23, 1894, about the destruction of 

 Scales's egg, which (except the fact that it was burnt) 

 is an entire fabrication ! 



It is only on a point like this which one has been 

 driving into people for more than 30 years that I feel 

 called upon to interfere ; but I see that the attempt is 

 useless ; though it does vex me, I confess, when those 

 who ought to know, and really do know, better incon- 

 siderately help to maintain the popular delusion. This 

 delusion was for a long while (and possibly is now) shared 

 by Mr. Champley of Scarborough, as I know that at one 



