PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 59 



some time ago that Lord Lilford had given a very 

 long price for an egg of the great auk. I trust that 

 he was successful in hatching it.' To those present who 

 are aware that the great auk has been virtually extinct 

 in this world for some fifty years, the humour of this 

 inquiry is apparent. 



" I have this moment received a telegram informing 

 me that an egg of the great auk was sold by auction 

 in London this afternoon for three hundred guineas." 



The greater number of the letters which follow were 

 written to a correspondent, himself a most successful 

 breeder of birds. Like Lord Lilford, he placed the 

 owls among his first favourites, and had for years 

 successfully bred the eagle owl of Europe [Bubo maximus), 

 and had been also very fortunate with the snowy owl 

 (Nyctea scandiaca) and many other species. Hence the 

 constant references to owls. This gentleman was spending 

 many successive winters in the Canary Islands, and because 

 of his thorough and admirable work done there, came 

 justly to be the acknowledged authority on the birds of 

 those islands. 



But though their letters do not here appear, Lord 

 Lilford had correspondents in many European countries, 

 and men whom he set to find him birds. 



It is — not v,'ithout its side of pathos — delightful to 

 think of this kind naturalist, sitting in his study (his 

 hand, so to say, on the ornithology of Europe), spinning 



