ALCA IMPENNIS. ort 
first to have possessed it, whether for few or for many years? The 
questions would probably hang upon the time during which you 
were an egg-collector. But the main peint is, from whem did the 
egg come to you?” 
[Such pertinacity deserved some reward, and met with it to the extent of 
tracing the specimen one step further back, fer on the 2ist of June, 1857, 
Mr. Davies replied to Mr. Wilmot as follows :—] 
““Since our former correspondence I have had some ponderings 
on the subject and a sort of dim recollection has dawned upon my 
mind that the egg in question formed part of a large quantity given 
to me by a schoolfellow named Alfred Mason; ..... but I have 
not of late heard anything about him. You can, however, probably 
trace something about it from his family. His brother Mr. James 
O. Mason is now resident in Birmingham.... These facts may 
give you a clue to investigate the history of the egg further... 
Should this clue in any way avail you I should be very pleased to 
know that I have been of service, and I beg that you will not suppose 
that it is anything but a pleasure to me to be instrumental in aiding 
your enthusiastic friend.” 
(Mr. Wilmot lost no time in acting on this information, and several letters 
passed between him and Mr. James Mason, who was most obliging in assisting 
the investigation, and at length wrote from Lirmingham to Mr. Wilmot on the 
3lst of July, 1857 :—] 
“ T have delayed replying to your last letter, as I had occasion to 
visit London, and I thought I should be better able to investigate 
the matter concerning the Great Auk’s egg by talking it over with 
my brother rather than by writing him on the subject. It appears 
that Mr. Thomas E. Davies is right in his recollection of having 
received a collection of eggs from my brother Alfred, when at King 
Edward’s School. It turns out, however, that the collection belonged 
to a younger brother, named Augustus, who has a distinct recollection 
of the Great Auk’s egg having formed part of it, but unfortunately 
he cannot remember how it came. He thinks it was given him by 
one of his relations and is quite certain he did not buy it, as he was 
not as a schoolboy particularly flush at that time. — 
“My brother Augustus is now settled as a solicitor in London, 
and his address is 15 Furnival’s Inn. If, therefore, you think well 
to write him on the subject pray do so, and he will in the meanwhile 
try to remember how the egg came into his hands; but I much fear 
2B2 
