NOTES AND QUERIES. 1-13 



BIRDS. 



Sale of another Egg of the Great Auk. — Only a few weeks ago we had 

 occasion to notice the extraordinary price realised by the sale of an egg of 

 this now extinct bird from a collection of the Rev. H. Burney. This 

 specimen, which was sold by auction on Decemb Q r 13th, realised the 

 unprecedented sum of 1 60 guineas. Ou March 1 2th, there was 

 a large attendence at Mr. Stevens's Rooms in King Street, Covent 

 Garden, to witness the competition for a much finer specimen which 

 was offered for sale in a collection of birds' eggs belonging to Mrs. 

 AVise. This collection she had inherited from her late father, Mr. 

 Holland, and the Auk's egg had been purchased by him many years ago 

 (1851) for £13 from Williams, in Vere Street, the predecessor of H. Ward ; 

 Williams having previously obtained it from Lefevre, of Paris. The egg 

 was no sooner exhibited than the biddings at once commenced with an offer 

 of £100, so high an opinion did the judges present form of it. Increasing 

 by additional offers of £L0, the price rose to £200, and it seemed at one 

 time as if Mr. Leopold Field, the purchaser of the previous specimen, was 

 likely to become the owner also of this ; but, after miking it " guineas," he 

 appeared to think he had gone far enough, and it was eventually knocked 

 down for £225 to Mr. J. Gardner, the well-known birdstuffer in Oxford 

 Street, who held a commission for some collector whose name did not 

 transpire. This is the highest price realised by auction for an egg of 

 the Great Auk, and is to be accounted for by reason of the impossibility 

 of procuring one except by sale of one of the comparatively few specimens 

 in the cabinets of collectors, all of which are well known. Some are iu 

 a better state of preservation and more handsomely coloured than others, 

 and that which has just changed hands is regarded by good judges as a 

 very desirable specimen. 



Reported occurrence of the Dusky Shearwater in Dorset. — In my 

 recently published book on the 'Birds of Dorsetshire' it is stated (p. 113) 

 that a specimen of the Dusky Shearwater, Ptiffinus obscunis, was caught 

 alive in Poole Harbour in June, 1887. This, unfortunately, is a mistake, 

 the bird captured having proved to be the Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus 

 griseus, and I am anxious to correct it as soon as possible. — J. C. Manse l 

 Pleydell (Whatcombe, Blandford). 



Disappearance of Birds from the Coast at High Tide.— In his "Notes 

 from Norfolk " (p. 82), Mr. J. H. Gumey remarks upon the disappearance 

 of shore-birds at high tide, and suggests an explanation to which the Editor 

 has appended a footnote. I may remark that during some weeks stay in 

 the neighbourhood of Blakeney in August and September lust, I had many 

 opportunities of noticing large flocks of Curlews, Knots, Little Stints, 

 Curlew Sandpipers, Turnstones, Sanderlings, and Ringed Plovers resting 



