no 



THE OSPilEY. 



Three main elements detei-niine the extent of 

 development of a fad. Of course there are first 

 of all the fundamental principles of supply and 

 demand at the bottom. Then there is what may 

 be desiffnated the cause of desire. The desire to 

 possess is influenced bj^ various considerations. 

 In the case of the Auk's eg'g's, the sequence is 

 essentially as follows. 



In Europe there are numerous collectors of 

 birds and, in addition, collectors of bird eg'gs. 

 Many who are deterred from collecting- skins 

 on account of the troubles and care incident to 

 keeping- skins take to eggs. The eg-gs are clean, 

 can be stored or arrang;ed well, are sufficiently 

 uniform to appear well together and yet suffi- 

 ciently varied to relieve monotony. The collector 

 g"enerally limits his endeavors to a special field 

 — the entire European continent or a more or 

 less restricted portion of which the capitol is 

 his own home. The number of species then is 

 limited. Most of them can be obtained for 

 small prices or throug^h slig^ht personal exertion. 

 The more difficult acquisition becomes, the 

 higher grows the price. Now, in the case of the 

 Great Auk, the bird is dead and the only eggs 

 to be had are those that were collected some 

 half a century ago or more — generally consider- 

 ably more. As there are many who want to 

 have the eggs of all European birds, and as 

 wealth increases and wealthy collectors increase 

 the competition to get an egg or eggs — some are 

 by no means content with one — entails high 

 prices. The competition is sufficient to run the 

 prices up into many hundreds of dollars or — the 

 sales generally occur in England — hundreds of 

 pounds. 



But the competition is not limited to those 

 who want to complete collections of eggs. 

 When objects become so famous and sought 

 after as Auk's eggs, another class want them. 

 Those persons who seek for what is curious and 

 rare enter into rivalry. They do not care in the 

 least for the eggs as eggs, but they want them 

 because they have an indefinite great value and 

 are widely known to have such value. They 

 rank them as curios; consequentl3' the genuine 

 egg collector has to pay an enhanced price. 



With respect to the eggs of .^/jj/or;//^ or the 

 Dinornithids of New Zealand, there is no such 



demand. An egg of one of those long extinct 

 birds is not necessary to complete any gentle- 

 man's collection, no fashion to collect them has 

 been developed as yet, and therefore the price is 

 limited by a small demand. It may not be 

 always so, but it is at present. 



From not appreciating these facts, very high 

 prices may be demanded for eggs for which 

 there is little sale. Only a couple of weeks ago, 

 an offer of an ALpyornis egg was made to the 

 United States National Museum with a demand 

 of 1,500 dollars for it. The inimber of the 

 OSPKEY for February containing the last quota- 

 tion happened to come into the hands of the 

 authorities just in time to give an answer with- 

 out the trouble of inquiring further. 



GREAT AUK IN UNITED STATES NATIONAI. MU- 

 SEUM. 



Apropos of the Great Auk, it will doubtless be 

 news to some of the readers of the Osprey that 

 the species is fairly represented in the United 

 States National Museum. There is a well 

 mounted skin of an adult male obtained from 

 the late Herr Wilhelm Schluter of Halle, and 

 said to have been killed at Eldey, June 1834; 

 there is an egg obtained from the Academy of 

 National Sciences of Philadelphia, and by the 

 latter secured from the DesMurs collection; 

 finall)% there is a fine lot of skeletons and sepa- 

 rate bones. Indeed, one of the best collections 

 (if not the very best) of skeletons and parts of 

 skeletons of the Great Auk extant is in the 

 Museum, and was obtained by Mr. Lucas who 

 has published the results of his "Expedition to 

 Funk Island" in the Annual Report of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for 1887 — 8 (Museum, p. 

 493-529, pi. 61-63). Mr. Lucas and his party ex- 

 humed "thousands of bones, and yet this great 

 number will 'make up' not more than a dozen 

 skeletons." Separate bones are valuable how- 

 ever. Over fourteen hundred specimens of the 

 hutnerus were secured. 



A list of all preserved skins, eggs and skeletons 

 known up to the date of publication was given 

 by Mr. Symington Grieve in his work issued in 

 1885, entitled the "Great Auk or Garefowl (Alca 

 impcnnis Linn).'''' 



