1896-97-] The Great A nk. 241 



Since I read ,you ray last paper, three previously unrecorded 

 eggs have been discovered. The first of these was found in the 

 collection of Mr S. E. Shirley, at Ettington Park, Stratford-on- 

 Avon (see p. 263). It had been labelled as the egg of a penguin, 

 and had remained unnoticed for some eighty years. The other 

 two eggs were accidentally discovered at a sale, and their 

 purchase created quite a sensation in oological circles in the 

 spring of 1894. Notices appeared in the leading daily papers 

 and journals when these eggs were again offered for sale at 

 the auction rooms of Mr Stevens, Covent Garden, London, on 

 24th April 1894. As might be expected, a number of the 

 stories put into circulation varied considerably, but the follow- 

 ing account, which appeared in the ' Morning Advertiser ' of 

 25th April 1894, is as accurate as any that appeared in the 

 daily press : — 



Sale of Great Auk's Eggs. — Yesterday afternoon, at 38 King Street, 

 Covent Garden, Mr J. C. Stevens sold by auction two recently discovered 

 eggs of the Great Auk. In submitting for sale the first of these lots, 

 the auctioneer said the egg was one of the very finest of its type, and had 

 been most carefully blown. It was slightly cracked, but the fracture, he 

 remarked, was imperceptible to himself. The owner of the eggs, the 

 auctioneer went on to say, purchased them at an auction in the south of 

 England, together with some fossils, for the sum of 36s. Considering 

 that he tied them in his pocket-handkerchief and rode home on his 

 bicycle with them, it was wonderful they were not broken to pieces. The 

 bidding started at 50 guineas, and rose by tens to 160 guineas, and from 

 that by tens and twenties until 260 guineas was reached, at which price 

 the egg was knocked down to Mr Herbert Massey. The auctioneer ex- 

 pressed great disappointment that the egg had not realised more than one 

 sold recently by him for £300, as he considered this a far better specimen. 

 The next lot submitted, though also a Great Auk's egg, was a specimen 

 of an entirely different type, and almost unique in its markings. It was 

 damaged to a somewhat greater extent than the other, but the dilapida- 

 tions were not noticeable when it was lying in a cabinet. The bidding 

 started at 30 guineas, and advanced by tens to 150, afterwards progressing 

 by fives to 175 guineas to a private collector, who did not wish his name 

 mentioned (see p. 260). 



The most reliable account is, however, that of Mr Edward 

 Bidwell, which appears at p. 422 of the 'Ibis,' July 1894 : — 



At the disposal by auction of the contents of the Little Hermitage, 

 near Rochester, on 14th of March last (1894), one of the lots, which 

 was described " a collection of shells and fossils," was purchased for 36 



