041 Zoological Society .— 



this Society know the result, I think they will congratulate me on 

 my good fortune in having excited his lordship's interest. After 

 several other friendly letters, I had three days ago the great plea- 

 sure of receiving one* in which the Bishop informed me his success 

 had surpassed anything I could have anticipated ; for his lordship 

 had done no less than secure me what may be not inaptly called 

 the "mummy" of an Alca itnjjennis, which, having come into 

 my hands yesterday, I have now the honour of exhibiting to the 

 Society. 



It appears that the Colonial Government have recently conceded 

 to a Mr. Glindon the privilege of removing the soil from Funk 

 Island ; for this soil, being highly charged with organic matter, is 

 consequently valuable as manure when hnportcd to Boston and other 

 places in North America. The Bishop, through Mr. N. 11. Vail (a 

 gentleman of the United States, well informed on scientific subjects, 

 and therefore aware of the interesting nature of the research), made 

 application to the lessee of Funk Island, who ordered his men em- 

 ployed there to use their best endeavours to obtain for me bones of 

 the Penguin. They appear to have done their work very effectually ; 

 for I hear that they " brought away many ])uncheons of bones and 

 other remains" — of course not all necessarily " Penguins " — which 

 I believe are now on their way to New England, where they Avill 

 doubtless be readily bought up by the farmers, though I trust some 

 may be rescued from ignoble uses by the American naturalis.ts. 

 This mummy, however, the Bishop tells me, was " found four feet 

 below the surface, and under two feet of ice." 1 need scarcely point 

 out to the Society what an advantage it is to have obtained so many 

 bones undeniably belonging to one individual bird. Though the 

 skeleton is not perfect, it is plain that we have here at least one side 

 of the entire vertebral column. The extremities of the limbs are 

 altogether wanting on either side ; and though this is greatly to be 

 regretted, it is some consolation to think that a knowledge of what 

 these parts are like in Alca impennis may be, with a little trouble, 

 supplied from almost every one of the sixty-three or sixty-four 

 stuffed skins at present known to exist*. I do not, however, mean 

 to prolong these remarks by making any observations on the osteo- 

 logical structure of this bird. That I have reason to hope may be 

 fully described by a far more able pen ; for it is my intention to place 

 the specimen I now exhibit in the hands of Professor Owen, trusting 

 that he will make it the subject of one of those monographs which 

 have so materially enriched our series of * Transactions.' 1 have 

 but to say in conclusion that, so far as 1 know, ray "mummy" i^, 

 with one exception, the only approach to a complete skeleton existing 

 in Europe. That exception is the specimen, nearly perfect, in the 



* Mr. Blyth, just six and twenty years ago, exhibited to this Society some 

 bones which had been left in a preserved skin of this bird (P. Z. S. 1837, p. 122 ; 

 and Ibis, 1861, p. 396, note). Within the last year, Mr. John Hancock extracted 

 from his own beautiful specimen, and from the very ancient and interesting ex- 

 ample in the Newcastle Museum, every hone they contained, without doing the 

 slightest damage to the skins, as might be seen at the late Meeting of the British 

 Association {Cat. of Exhibition, nos. 180 & 185). 



