EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXIM. 



Egg OF THE Great Auk. 



ABOUT FOUR-FIFTHS NATURAL SIZE. — - 



From the original in the collection of the U, S. National Museum, No. 15141. 



The specimen measures 125'"'" by 74'"'". This egg was obtained from the Academy 

 of Natm-al Sciences, Philadelphia, Pa., and was originally in the collection of O. 

 des Murs. 



It is the egg figured on Plate I, Revue et Magazin de Zoologie. 1863, and the one 

 to which des Murs refers in the text as having been broken and restored. That des 

 Murs had three eggs of the Great Auk is extremely improbable, as he states that he 

 never even saw more than the two in his possession, and the reference to three is 

 either a slip of the pen or of memory. 



The egg seems to have been washed since it was figured, and the freshness of the 

 markings thereby impaired. 



