no Recent Notes on the Great Auk. [Sess. 



Since the above communication reached me, I have been unable to 

 ascertain anything more about this supposed skeleton, so possibly 

 there is some mistake. 



United States. 



Gamhridge, Mass. Museum of Comparative Zoology. — A writer, 

 " L. S.," in 'The Auk,' vol. iii., No. 2, p. 265, April 1886, says : "The 

 Harvard University Museum ( = Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Cambridge, Mass.) is credited with the possession of two skeletons 

 ' prepared from mummy Great Auks obtained at Funk Island during 

 1864' Mr J. Allen, then curator at the Museum, wrote me under 

 March 18, 1885, as follows : 'We have but one specimen of the Great 

 Auk, and that is to be rated as a skeleton. It is in reality a so-called 

 mummy, and is from the Funk Islands. Only a portion of the bones 

 have 3'et been laid bare — one wing and one leg ; the rest is still cov- 

 ered with the dried flesh. In some unaccountable way it is commonly 

 and erroneously supposed that we have two of these Great Auk 

 mummies.' Four mummy Great Auks were obtained on Funk 

 Island — namely, one in 1863, and three in 1864 — and of these the 

 specimen got in 1863 is in Cambridge, England, and of the others, 

 one is in London, and the other, as above mentioned, at Cambridge, 

 Mass. The missing one was sent by the Bishop of Newfoundland to 

 the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science. What has become of 

 it, is the question. I have addressed repeated inquiries to the Secretary 

 of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, but have had no 

 reply. I hope this maj' meet the eye of some one who will be able 

 to make the necessary inquiries in Nova Scotia. While referring to 

 this subject, it may be as well to draw attention to an interesting 

 statement made by Mr Frederic A. Lucas in ' The Auk,' vol. v., No. 3, 

 July 1888, p. 280 : 'The soil of Funk Island, by the way, is frozen 

 for only a part of the year ; and the statement that a mummy of the 

 Great Auk was " taken from under ice which never melts," was doubt- 

 less made from a misapprehension of the facts in the case, for al- 

 though floe ice is driven upon some portions of the island, it never 

 reaches those places where the Auk remains lie buried, and never 

 endures into the summer months.'" 



JFaslmigfon. National Museum. — Writing me 9th August 1888, 

 Mr Frederic A. Lucas informs me that there are " ten or twelve " 

 more or less complete skeletons among the remains brought home 

 by the Grampus Expedition to Funk Island in 1887. 



Detached Bones. 



At the time I wrote my book, my information led me to 

 suppose that only bones representing about 45 or 50 Great 

 Auks had been brought home from Funk Island in 1874 by 

 Professor J. Milne. However, I was informed by Professor 



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