1887-88.] Recent Notes on the Great Aiik. 113 



I am aware, is a dorsal vertebra, now in my possession, and 

 found by me while examining a quantity of material brought 

 from Caisteal-nan-Gillean, a shell-mound on the island of 

 Oronsay, — the same place where the other bones discovered 

 by me came from. (See ' The Great Auk ; its History, 

 Archieology, and Eemains,' p. 47.) 



Ecjcjs. 



British Isles. 



Addlestone Hall, Surrey. Collection of Leopold FieU, Esq. — Tliis 

 egg was in the posse.ssion of the Rev. H. Burney, Woburn, Bedford- 

 shire. It was sold at Stevens's Auction Rooms, Coveut Garden, for 

 .£168, on 12th December 1887, and bought by Mr Field. 



Cambridge. The collection of eggs that belonged to Lord Lilford is 

 now in the Natural History Museum at Cambridge. It consists of 

 five eggs, and the following additional particulars regarding two of 

 these is worth recording. 



Lord Lilford's collection. Lausanne Egg. — So as to prevent any 

 mistake as to the way the egg obtained at Lausanne by Mr G. A. 

 Frank, and purchased by Lord Lilford, came into Mr Frank's hands, 

 it is as well to publish the following statement by Mr Frank, as at 

 page 109 of my book I have given information from another source. 

 He saj's : " I first heard of tlie two eggs by chance in 1881, and I 

 quite believed myself to be the onlj^ person who knew of them — 

 never having been aware that M. Fatio had seen or had given an 

 account of them. In 1882 I went to see the hon. curator of the 

 Lausanne Museum, and I then asked him if he would sell or make an 

 exchange of one of the two eggs. His reply was that he could not 

 dispose of such a rare specimen without the full consent of the Museum 

 Committee. The Committee met later on, and they decided, as they 

 bad two specimens, to let me have one of the two for one stuffed 

 gorilla (not a bad skin, as has been stated), a fine skull, and several 

 bones of Alca imjyennis froiii Professor Milne's collection, and several 

 other specimens which they selected. To this I agreed, fully believing 

 that these two eggs were unknown to science. After keeping it three 

 months, I sold it to Lord Lilford for £110, not £140. That his lord- 

 .ship obtained the finest egg was a mere chance, as Dr Larguier wished 

 to keep the most perfect for the Lausanne Museum. I should have 

 preferred the other one." 



Dorsetshire Egg. — I am indebted to Mr J. E. Harting, editor of the 

 Zoological and Natural History Department of the 'Field,' for the 

 following information regarding this egg. Its owner, a farmer, Mr 

 Hill, was quite unaware of its value, and several times had been in- 

 clined to throw it into the fire — as, being broken at one end, he began 

 to think it was no ornament to his mantel-shelf One day a clergy- 

 man called, and, knowing something about oology, his attention was 



