380 ALCA IMPENNIS. 
been in the hands of a dealer. The small end has been broken off, as though the 
contents had been sucked out. It was covered with dirt when it came into 
my possession, and its true markings and colour were for the most part 
concealed. A careful application of lather remuyed the accumulated dirt, and 
restored what must have been nearly its original appearance. For boldness of 
marking I hardly know any specimen that surpasses it. | 
[Beside the three plaster casts coloured in fucsimile (A, B, C) of the eggs above- 
mentioned (§§ 4832-4834) the collection contains the following also made by 
Mr. John Hancock :— 
D,D. Zwo.—From the egg formerly in the Collection of the 
late Mr. Jolin Scales. 
O. W. tab. xxi. 
(The original specimen was, as Mr, Scales wrote to me (10 November, 1858), 
obtained by him in Paris in 1816 or 1817, by exchange from M. Dufresne 
(cf. § 4885), who then had two or three. This egg never left Mr. Scales’s pos- 
session until 1858, when at my request he sent it to me that Mr. Hancock might 
copy it. Laccordingly forwarded it to that gentleman, who made four copies of 
it—one, which he retained, is, I presume, now with the rest of his collection in 
the Museum of Neweastle-on-Tyne; a second for the owner, and the other two for 
Mr. Wolley and myself respectively. The original egy, with the copy intended 
for him, I returned to Mr. Seales, at that time living in Ireland, and some years 
after both were burnt with the rest of his collection in a disastrous fire at Cork, 
where he had temporarily housed his goods during a change of abode. It is 
fortunate that Mr. Hancock's skill should have preserved the likeness of this 
very beautiful specimen, and I have thought it worth while here to figure it, 
it being understood that the figures are taken from the copies, and not from 
the original, though of that they are most accurate representations, for not only 
had I the opportunity of comparing them with it, but Mr. Wolley also, as he 
wrote in his Egg-book—‘ Mr. Scales’s egg now before me is wonderfully 
represented by the copies,” adding in a letter to Mr. Hancock: “I went over 
them spot by spot, and I find each spot a map, and every maplet in its right 
place. The general effect is admirable. It is very satisfactory to see how the 
natural depressions of the shell are indicated in the casts and how faithfully 
you have followed them in the markings. I went over the casts individually. 
ike oe Each has its own merits.......In one spot I have preferred mine, 
in another Newton's. In the general surface I have thought mine the best, 
and certainly in one place it has a very decided advantage, and that is at a 
place within the boundary of the lower third of the egg, in nearly the same 
longitude as the largest black spot. There, in Newton’s cast, is a little too 
much drawing together of the picture laterally, and there are only three spots 
where there should be four; but this is sver-criticism, it only shews that one 
can tell which is the real egg and which the copy....... I find the casts very 
inconsiderably larger than the egg itself:—KEyg 4:75 by 2-96, casts 479 by 
2-99 inches.” Very few copies could stand so minute a serutiay as this, but he 
