1887-88.] Rece)it Notes on the Great Aick. 1 17 



recorded as in Baron Louis d'Hamonville's collection, makes him the 

 owner of four eggs in all. 



Germany. 



Breslau. Count Rodern's collection. — It is as well to explain, to 

 avoid future confusion, that this is not the egg sold by Herr Mecklen- 

 burg of Flensburg to a Herr Platow of Breslau, and of which Mr 

 Eobert Champley of Scarborough has a drawing. 



Holland. 



Amsterdam. Museum of Royal Zoological Societ)'. — At p. 89 of my 

 book I print a letter from Professor Schlegel of Leyden Zoological 

 Museum to Eobert Champley, Esq., Scarborough, from which it ap- 

 pears that in 1859 one of the eggs in the Leyden Museum had been 

 presented to the Royal Zoological Museum at Amsterdam. From 

 what Mr G. A. Frank of 9 Haverstock Hill, London, writes me, there 

 appears to be some mistake with regard to the date of the egg reaching 

 Amsterdam, as well as the conditions under which it came into that 

 collection. On the 30th October 1885 Mr Frank wrote me: "Ire- 

 turned yesterday from Holland. Dr Westerman told me that Tem- 

 minck gave him the egg between 1840 and 1845." Writing me again 

 on 5th November 1885, he says : " It does not much matter when they 

 came into possession of it [the egg], but I know for certain that it was 

 never in Professor Schlegel's time. I often made a drawing of it when 

 I was a boy some twenty-five years ago. Dr Westerman told me last 

 week that he obtained it in exchange from Temminck." 



Leyden. Zoological Museum. — Mr G. A. Frank, writing me 30th 

 October 1885, says : " I believe that the two eggs (now one in Amster- 

 dam) were bought by Temminck from my grandfather or father." 



Summary of Exlsting Remains op the Great Auk. 



Total number of 

 birds represented. 



Skins, . . . . . . 78 or 79 



Skeletons more or less complete,! . . 21 or 24 



Detached bones,^ . . . . 841 or 851 



Physiological preparations, . . . 2 or 3 



Eggs, . . . . . . 67 or 69 



^ If the skeleton recently acquired by the Museum of Science and Art, Edin- 

 burgh, is found to be one of those already recorded, it must then be deducted 

 from the above total, which will read 21 or 23. 



2 Mr Frederic A. Lucas informs me that the result of his count of the humeri 

 of Alca imiKnnis collected by the s.s. Grampus expedition at Funk Island in 

 1887 is 1424 ; and supposing that exactly one-half of that number were right 

 humeri and the other half left humeri, it would be evident that at least 712 

 Great Auks were represented by these remains. However, it is much more likely 

 that there is an unequal number of either right or left humeri ; and when this is 

 ascertained, it will enable a much more accurate calculation of the exact number 

 of birds rej)resented by these remains to be made. In the meantime, it is only 



