330 The Great Auk. [Sess. 



Field on approbation to the Museum of Science and Art, 

 Edinburgh, where it remained some time, and where I had the 

 pleasure of seeing it, through the kindness of Dr E. H. Tra- 

 quair, F.R.S. It had rather a dilapidated appearance, the 

 plumage dirty, and the webbed part of the feet somewhat 

 worm-eaten, and the spikes or wires for attaching it to its 

 stand, referred to by Mr L. Field in his aforegoing letter, were 

 projecting from its feet. 



When purchased by Mr Eowland Ward, he had the skin 

 cleaned, re-stuffed, and mounted on a new stand, and I am 

 told that the work has been done very skilfully, as one may 

 judge by the appearance of the specimen from Plate III., 

 p. 269. 



France. 



Paris. — M. H. Duchaussoy, writing me on 23rd July 

 1897, informs me that the collection of M. Jules Vian, 

 Eue de Petits Champs 42, Paris, is kept at Bellevue, Seine- 

 et-Oise. This statement M. H. Duchaussoy has since 

 modified in his paper published this year, " Notes Addition- 

 elles," as he has discovered that although M. Jules Vian 

 keeps his collection of European birds at Bellevue, he retains 

 the specimen of Aha impennis Linn, and his collection of eggs 

 in his house in Paris. 



Have Cheat Auk shins been stretched too much in skinning ? 

 — Mr Frederic A. Lucas, Osteologist of the Smithsonian 

 Museum, Washington, U.S.A., and who has been working in 

 connection with the Alaskan Fur -Seal Commission for the 

 past two years, writes me as follows on 7th November 1897, 

 referring to my paper at p. 237 et sea.: "Your figures of the 

 immature specimens are very interesting, and I am glad to 

 see them. As usual, all the specimens are much too long. I 

 fancy that the neck of the Great Auk was very much like 

 that of the fur-seal, in that the skin stretched very much 

 when taken off. I am curious to see if our taxidermist will 

 be able to keep the male fur-seals down to their proper 

 length." 



