Reviews.



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photographer, and Mr. Abbott has fully availed himself of these

opportunities.


The letterpress is well written in an entertaining fashion,

and contains several yarns about the home-life of the bird, as

told to the author by various fishermen and others with whom

he came in contact, though he does not of course vouch for their

accuracy in points of detail.


The feature of the book is the photographs, which are

excellent and have been beautifully reproduced. They show

young in all stages, from the time they leave the shell till they

are full grown and well on the wing, and there is also a varied

selection of photographs of nests, showing the many different

situations chosen, such as a small bare rock, standing out in the

sea, on the beach, on trees, on a fence and on a telegraph pole.

In fact, with the exception of a picture of the eggs, which ought,

we think, to have been included, the photographs give a graphic

description of the bird and its actions during the most interest¬

ing period of the year, and to those interested in the habits of

birds, rather than their dried skins, we confidently recommend

this book.



THE GREAT AUK. *


The Great Auk owes much of its popularity as it became

extinct so recently that, prior to that event, enough was known

to whet the appetite for more, and in addition it was a British bird.

The pamphlet before us forms a most useful record of the sales of

its eggs or skins in England that have taken place during the last

hundred years. The highest price given was ^350 for the egg

which is now in the Royal Scottish Museum, and the lowest 12/-

or 17/- for an egg purchased for the British Museum in 1819.

Two notable bargains have been made in these eggs, two being

purchased in Edinburgh in May, 1880, for 32/- and sold on the

following July for .£207 2s. In the second case, two were bought

amongst a lot of ‘shells and fossils’ for 36/- in March, 1894, and

sold the following month for ^462 15s. ! The price of all eggs



* The Great Auk. A Record of Sales of Birds and Egg'S by Public Auction in Great

Britain, by Thomas Parkin, M.A. Hastings: Burfikld & Pennells, J,td. Price 2/-.



