328 The Great Auk. [Sess. 



1858. It was received by him in 1832 from Brandt, the 

 naturalist of Hamburg, who said it had been procured in 

 Greenland. According to M. Ch. Van Kempen, M. de Cossette 

 was aided in acquiring this specimen for his collection by M. 

 Delahaye of Amiens. 



Autun. — The skin of Alca impennis, which was at Chalon- 

 sur-Saone, and belonged to M. le Dr B. F. de Montessus, was, 

 along with the collection of that gentleman, removed to Autun 

 in 1895, and presented to the town, to the museum of which 

 it forms a magnificent addition. 



Great Britain. 



Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. — I refer to this 

 specimen at p. 248 of this volume, and received information 

 that it had been purchased for the Museum at the price at 

 which it was bought in at the sale-rooms of Mr J. C. Stevens, 

 King Street, Covent Garden, London, which, according to press 

 notices of 24th April 1895, was 350 guineas. I am informed 

 by Dr K. H. Traquair, F.B.S., that the price was £350, not 

 guineas. He has also reminded me of his note upon " Bemains 

 of the Great Auk in the Edinburgh Museum," which appears 

 at pp. 196, 197, 'Annals of Scottish Natural History' for 

 1895, in which he states the price. I read this note at the 

 time of publication ; but, unfortunately, not having a separate 

 copy to place beside my Great Auk papers, it had escaped my 

 memory. 



Tring, Herts : Boucard- Field skin. — It seems probable that 

 this specimen is the one that belonged to M. Ernest Dele- 

 gorgue's collection. Hearing that the Delegorgue specimen 

 was amissing, I wrote to Mons. H. Duchaussoy requesting him 

 to favour me with such information as he could obtain upon 

 the subject, as the skin had not hitherto been recorded, and 

 might be the skin figured at p. 269, Plate III. I give at 

 pp. 248, 249 its history so far as known to me at that 

 time. Since then I have been informed by Dr Hartert (see 

 letter of 21st September 1897) of the Tring Museum that 

 it was bought in Paris by M. Boucard, who declined to 

 say from whom he had obtained it, as he had promised not 

 to do so. 



