NOTES AND QUERIES. 141 



all worldug naturalists who require to refer to the district faunas of Great 

 Britain, without in any way interfering with observers' original notes in the 

 body of the text. — J. A. Harvie Brown (Dunipace House, Larbert, N.B.). 



MAMMALIA. 



Bi-dental Skulls of the Narwhal. — In the ' Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society of London ' for 1871 (p. 50), Mr. Clark has enumerated 

 eleven bi-dental skulls of this animal as then known to be in existence in 

 various collections in Europe. Since that time I have seen a twelfth example, 

 now in the Dundee Museum, which was brought from Prince Kegent's 

 Inlet by Capt. Gravill, of the whaler ' Camperdown.' In the late Inter- 

 national Fisheries Exhibition most of your readers doubtless saw another 

 example exhibited by Messrs. Stephen, of Dundee, which belonged to Mr. 

 Daniel Bruce, of that town. It was taken in the summer of 1882, in Davis 

 Straits, by Capt. J. B. Walker, then commanding the s. s. ' Erick.' This 

 makes a total of thirteen known bi-dental skulls. — T. Southwell (Norwich). 



BIRDS. 



The last Great Auk.— Under this heading (Zool. 1883, p. 470) I drew 

 attention to a notice in ' The American Naturalist ' for 1872 (vol. vi. p. 369), 

 wherein the author, Mr. Ruthven Deane, stated that he had been informed 

 by Mr. A. Lechevallier, of Montreal, that a specimen of AIca impennis 

 had been found dead in the vicinity of St. Augustin, on the coast of 

 Labrador, in November, 1870 ; that this specimen, although in a bad state, 

 had been preserved by Mr. Lechevallier, and sold by him to a naturalist in 

 France, and realised two hundred dollars. Thinking it of much interest to 

 substantiate, if possible, the alleged existence of /J/ca imi^ennls at so recent 

 a date as 1870, 1 have since made inquiries concerning it, with the following 

 result : — Through the kindness of Dr. Elliott Coues, I have received two 

 letters addressed by Mr. Lechevallier to Mr. Ruthven Deane, dated respect- 

 ively the 4th and 17th March, 1872. These letters, although signed 

 " A. Lechevallier," appear to have been written for him by an amanuensis 

 who translated them from French into very bad English. I quote from 

 them so much as relates to the bird in question: — "4th March, 1872. 

 There was a mistake in the price of my Great Auk. I have said to Mr. 

 Brewster that the skin was of 200 dols., and the egg 150 dols. I sent it in 

 Europe to M. Fairmaire, naturalist to Paris, whom have sold it I think in 

 Austria. It has been found dead on the coast of Labrador, and in bad 

 state." " 17th March, 1872. According to your desire I address you in 

 full the instructions which I obtained myself on the Alca impennis which 

 has been found dead in November, 1870, on the coast of Labrador. I 

 cannot exactly give the date, but I know that it is in November. It was 

 found on the northern coast by some Indians in the vicinities of St. 



