1870.1 REEKS— ON BIRDS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 413 



British Museum by Mr. J. M. Jones,* President of the Nova 

 Scotia Institute of Natural Science, was '' found by the Bishop of 

 Newfoundland while on a missionary cruise at Funk Island," I 

 will take the liberty of transcribing his lordship's letter t) Mr. 

 Jones as it appears in the "Transactions of the N.Scotia Institute 

 of Nat. Science," the more so as I wish to make a few remarks 

 thereon. The italics are mine : — 



'<St. John's, N. F., August 10th, 1864. 



" My dear Sir, — I am much pleased that the mummy arrived in 

 a good state of preservation. How long it has been embalmed or 

 entombed hi the ice I cannot of course tell, but I underst;md the 

 diflfereut specimens were found several feet (at least four) below 

 the surface, and under ice wJiich never melts. They were all found 

 OQ the Funk Islands, but on which side I am not able now to 

 discover, as the person who dug them up is not at present, I 

 believe, in St. John's. He was sent, or went there to gather the 

 guano or bird manure on speculation, with strict injunctions to 

 procure, if possible, the bones or skeletons of the extinct bird. In 

 this he succeeded better than in his own business, and probably if 

 he had known the value attached to these specimens by naturalists 

 he might have turned them to better account than the guano. 

 One specimen I sent to Mr. Newton, and you saw by his letter 

 how highly it was prized. Another was sent to Agassiz, and the 

 third I have been enabled through the kindness of our Governor 

 to forward to you : and this is the most perfect of the three, or 

 certainly more perfect than the one I sent to Mr. Newton ; the 

 other I did not see. 



*' I think it very likely more specimens might be found, as no 

 persons are living on the island ; and it is only lately that any 

 attempt has been made to discover and preserve the skeleton. 



" Your's faithfully, 



"Ed. Newfoundland.'" 



* Of this specimen Professor Xewton writes me that **it was original- 

 ly intended to have been sent to me, but that having sailed for Spitsber- 

 gen just before the Bishop's letter to me reached England, I was unable 

 to let him have an answer for many months. I wrote to him immediate- 

 ly on ray return home, and shortly after was inexpressibly mortified t(» 

 find that not having heard from me for so long, he imagined I did not 

 care to have a second specimen, and so sent it to Mr. Jones, by whom 

 it was given to the British Museum, where its skeleton — a very perfect 

 one — is now to be seen.'' 



Vol. Y. C * No. 1. 



