ALCA IMPENNIS. 365 
for it some years ago. About two years since! I had called at 
Mr. Gould’s to ask whether he had any British eggs to dispose of, 
when he told me of this gentleman wishing to part with his collection 
in which was the Great Auk’s among other eggs. Last autumn 
Mr. Gould told me he believed the gentleman had not yet parted with 
it, and he gave me his name and address. Mr. Bevan kindly con- 
sented to let me have the egg. Mr. Gould congratulated me on 
obtaining an egg which is now so valuable, but could not recollect 
its individual history, It is differently marked from either of those 
in the British Museum, one of which is from Bullock’s Collection 
taken in one of the [Orkney] Islands*. Mr. Leadbeater sold one to 
Mr. Wilmot for five pounds last year, as they each mentioned to me, 
and Mr. Leadbeater had offered three pounds each for the eggs in 
vain. Mr. Yarrell was so lucky as to obtain his for a france, as he 
told me. It was hanging up at a door with other eggs in Paris *. 
M. Hardy, of Dieppe, had one for which he had given four Peregrine 
Falcons’ eggs in exchange, and he thought he could procure me one 
for fifty francs. M. Perrot, of Paris, had two on sale and one old bird 
[in 1846]. For the cracked bad egg he wanted one hundred franes, 
for the other, a beautiful specimen, two hundred. 
[Nearly ten years passed without Mr. Wolley being able to obtain any 
further information concerning his specimen, but in the course of that time be 
had been Jed to suspect that Mr. Gould had obtained it from Herr Brandt, of 
Hamburg, upon whom he called when passing through that town, and wrote 
as follows :—] 
Hamburg, 22 April, 1856.—This day I have taiked to Herr 
J. G. W. Brandt, the naturalist dealer, concerning eggs of the Great 
Auk. He has not had any for some twenty years, but at that time 
he had them for some three years, sometimes eggs, sometimes birds, 
five or six atatime. He thinks he may have sent about fifteen [eggs | 
to England, several to Germany. He had all that were got in Ice- 
land at that time through Herr Siemsen, who was then travelling for 
a house or merchant at Flensborg, and making annual journeys to 
1 [This was written in September, 1847.—Fp. ] 
2 (This statement is very possibly true, but rests only en tradition.—Ep. | 
° [This story has been told with so many embellishments as to carry it into the 
realm of romance. Really the only variation which it admits is as to the price 
Mr. Yarrel] paid. According to my recollection it was two francs, but I have 
known men who ought to remember put it as high as five (Nature, xlix. pp. 412, 
432, 456). The great points are that it was bought at Paris not long after 
1815, and that the seller knew not what it was, or anything of its history.—Ep. | 
