336 The Great Auk. [Sess. 



Prof. Steenstrup really to be that of an egg of the Great Auk. 

 I think the Swedes themselves have published something 

 about it, but I do not know where. A preliminary report, a 

 communication from the Swedish geologist Dr Hoist, was 

 published by Dr G-. Hartlaub in ' Abhaudlungen des Natur- 

 wissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen,' Bd. xiv., Heft 1, 1896 

 (the note in question perhaps only to be found in ' Zweite 

 Ausgabe, als Manuskript gedruckt ')." 



Eggs. 

 British Isles. 



London. — The late Lord Garvagh's collection. At p. 106, 

 ' The Great Auk or Garefowl,' I referred to the broken egg 

 that was in this collection, and remarked that it was probably 

 still in the possession of the Dowager Lady Garvagh. At the 

 time I wrote (1885) I was under the impression, from informa- 

 tion received from the late Mr B. Champley, that the Trough- 

 ton egg had been sold by the executors of the late Lord 

 Garvagh to the late Mr G. D. Bowley, whose collection is now 

 in the possession of Mr G. Fydell Bowley. Mr Champley 

 had examined the Bowley collection, and had also a figure 

 of the Troughton egg sent him by Dr Troughton from Coventry, 

 8th February 1861. However, Mr Champley seems to have 

 been mistaken in his opinion, as Mr E. Bidwell informed me 

 on 12th June 1888 that the egg that had gone amissing was 

 that which belonged to Dr Troughton. This statement seems 

 to be confirmed by the following notice, which appeared in the 

 letter of the London correspondent of the 'Scotsman,' 22nd 

 April 1898:— 



Great interest was excited this evening at the meeting of the British 

 Ornithologists' Club over the exhibition of a remarkably fine specimen of 

 the egg of the Great Auk, which had been lost sight of for more than five- 

 and-twenty years. The egg has a somewhat singular history. It was sold 

 in 1842 by the late Mr A. D. Bartlett to a Mr Maunde for £2. Ten years 

 later the specimen changed hands for £5, and in 1869 it was acquired for 

 £60 [according to the late Mr R. Champley, should be £64 J ] by the 



1 Mr Henry Stevens writes me on 20th July 1898 : " I have made an unsuc- 

 cessful hunt for the sale books of the late Dr Troughton's sale. Mr Bidwell has, 

 I believe, the late Mr Bond's catalogue, in which he entered the price at the time 



