^°^i9lf^^] Thayer, Great Auk Eggs. 209 



Sir William Milner who purchased it November 23, 1847, for 200 

 francs. After his death the egg was purchased by Mr. T. G. 

 Middlebrook, April 23, 1895, for £189. 



Egg XV was originally obtained in Iceland about 1830 by a ship 

 owner of St. Malo who bequeathed it to Comte Raoul de Barace. 

 Upon his death it was secured by Baron d'Hamonville in March, 



1887. On June 25, 1895, it was offered at auction in London and 

 was bought by Messrs. Jay & Co. for £173 5s and two years later 

 July 27, 1897, was again sold to Mr. T. G. Middlebrook for £168. 

 It was figured in the Memoirs of the Societe Zoologique de France 



1888, plate 6, fig. C. 



Egg XVI from Iceland, was sold by Frederick Schultz of Dresden 

 to Mr. Hugh Reid, May 23, 1841. The same year the latter sold 

 it to Mr. J. H. Tuke for £2. 6s. and at the executors' sale April 20, 

 1896, it was purchased l)y Mr. Heattey Noble for Mr. Wm. Newell 

 for £168. This egg is referred to in Hewitson's Coloured Illustra- 

 tions of British Birds 1846, Vol. II, p. 413, and is shown in the 

 accompanying plate. (Plate XII.) 



Egg XVII one of three which were in the collection of the Vi- 

 comte de Barde for some thirty years prior to 1825 when they went 

 with the rest of his collection to the Boulogne Museum. The 

 curator of this institution exchanged them to Mr. James Gardner 

 Jr. for an Ostrich skin. Mr. Gardner brought them to London 

 and sold them to Mr. F. H. Potts, who after disposing of two of 

 them at auction May 24, 1853, sailed to New Zealand taking the 

 present egg with him. He died in 1888 and about 1891 the egg 

 was purchased by Mr. Henry O. Forbes, curator of the Canterbury 

 Museum, Christ Church, New Zealand. It was returned to 

 England and was in the collection of Mr. Leopold Field from whom 

 it was purchased by Mr. Rowland Wai-d. It was offered at auction 

 April 13, 1897 and was bought by Mr. T. G. Middlebrook for £294. 

 Probably no bird's egg has ever travelled so widely ! 



Egg XVIII has the same early history as No. XV and was 

 figured by the Baron d'Hamonville, Plate 6, fig. B, of the paper 

 already referred to. It was purchased, July 19, 1899, by Mr. T. 

 G. Middlebrook for £315, but on the dispersal of the Middlebrook 

 Museum January 30, 1908, it brought only £110, and was bought 

 by Mr. Rowland Ward. 



