ALCA IMPENNIS. 367 
obtained by him from Herr Carl Siemsen, of Reykjavik, who must certainly 
have received it more or less directly from the people of K yrkjuvogr, being 
part of the spoil which they year after year in those days brought from Eldey '. 
Indeed there is not the least possibility of its having been obtained elsewhere, 
though the year in which it was taken cannot be surely fixed. Still it is not 
likely to have been retained over the winter in Iceland, and therefore the 
probability is that it is an egg of 1835, in which year it reached Herr 
Brandt. |} 
A.—Plaster cast of the above, painted in /ue-simile by 
Mr. John Hancock, 1858. 
§ 4833. One.—Eldey, before 1837? From Mr. J. P. Wilmot, 
23 March, 1856. 
O. W. tabb. xv. & L. 
The first letter I received from Mr. Wilmot [dated * Clarendon 
Lodge, Leamington, 8d Feb. 1856” ] concerning this egg, which is 
referred to by Mr. Hewitson (Illust. Br. B. Eggs, ed. 2, ii. p. 470) 
as one of those still in Mr. Wilmot’s cabinet, contains the 
following... . “It was given to me by the Rev. Wm. Bree, son of my 
friend the naturalist, of whom this county [Warwick] has so good 
reason to be proud. He derived it from an uncle; but its further 
history he has not been abie to trace.” Then 25th February, 1856, 
Mr.Wilmot writes... . “‘ If you should desire to possess it, and I could 
ascertain that Wm. Bree would not take amiss my parting with it, I 
imagine we should have no difficulty in arranging the exchange.” 
On the 4th of March I had the pleasure of inspecting Mr. Wilmot’s 
cabinet, and on the 12th he wrote :—‘“‘ I enclose a note from Mr. Bree 
which makes me quite free to let you have the Great Auk’s egg. . . 
You have seen it by the side of an egg which certainly could not act 
as a foil to it” [the other specimen? which was figured by Mr. 
Hewitson (tom. cit. pl. exxix.)], “therefore the responsibility of 
duly estimating its demerits must rest with you... .” 
From the enclosed letter of Mr. Bree’s [Polebrook, Oundle, March 
10, 1856] to Mr. Wilmot I extract the following :—*‘ I received your 
' (Cf. ‘Abstract of Mr. J. Wolley’s Researches in Icelaud respecting the Gare- 
fowl or Great Auk,’ Ibis, 1861, pp. 374-399.— Ep. ] 
* [This is now at Cambridge, having been given to the University Museum of 
Zoology with the rest of Mr. Wilmot’s collection by the late Mr. Cecil 
Russell. —Ep. | 
