140 Poachers and Poaching. 



these may seem enormous sums to give for a 

 relic, the transactions are not without others to 

 keep them in countenance. Only a few years 

 ago two eggs of the same kind fetched one 

 hundred and one hundred and two guineas 

 respectively ; while the egg first named realised 

 thirty-three pounds ten shillings a little over 

 twenty years ago. At that time it was dis- 

 covered, together with four others, packed away 

 in a dust-covered box in the museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, these being sold in 1865. 

 From this it would seem that in the ornitho- 

 logical market the complete shell of a great auk's 

 egg is worth nearly one hundred and seventy 

 pounds, and a broken one only seventy pounds 

 less. It will be seen that the purchase of one 

 of these may be a good investment ; and what 

 a mine of wealth a great auk that was a good 

 layer might prove to its fortunate possessor can 

 only be conjectured. At the present time the 

 number of eggs of this species known to exist 

 is sixty-six, twenty-five of which are in museums 

 and forty-one in private collections. Of the total 

 number forty-three are retained in Great Britain. 

 When a bird becomes so rare that the individual 

 remains can be counted, the same may be taken 

 to be practically extinct as a species. The great 

 auk has pursued a policy of extinction for the 

 past two or three centuries, until now, like the 



