358 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



Sir, — In the ' Revue Francais d^Ornithologie ' for April 

 1913jtlie Comte de Tristan records his finding an egg of the 

 Great Auk in a cupboard which probably had not been 

 opened for 80 years. Upon my attention being called to 

 this communication by Mr. H. F. Witherby^ I wrote to the 

 Comte asking his permission to photograph the egg and this 

 was at once most kindly given. Early in August, accom- 

 panied by Mr. Henry Stevens, I visited the Comte at the 

 Chateau L^Emerillon and obtained negatives of the e^^. Its 

 history, so far as I have been able to gather, is as follows: — 



It belonged to the Marquis de Tristan, the grandfather of 

 the present Marquis and great grandfather of the Comte. 

 When Comte de Tristan he travelled a great deal and 

 brought home many interesting specimens, notably this egg. 

 He formed the collections of minerals, fossils, shells, mosses, 

 etc., now in the Museum at Orleans. His herbarium and 

 many manuscripts are still at L'Emerillon, and with many 

 mementoes of his travels remained, since his death in 

 January 1861, in a cupboard until 1910, at which time the 

 Comte, who is much interested in birds and eggs, discovered 

 them. The egg measures 138 x 7Q millimetres; it has a pale 

 yellow ground-colour, and the larger end is well covered 

 with black markings. On one side is written in faded ink 

 the word " Pingouin.'^ When discovered the eggw^as found 

 to be badly fx-actured about 1^ inches from the smaller end. 



This brings the number of recorded eggs to 74. There 

 has been an interval of 14 years since I last communicated 

 a like discovery to 'The Ibis.' 



I am. Sir, 



Yours &c., 



Edward BidwIill. 



1 Trig Lane. E.G., 

 12 Jan., 1914. 



