The Great Auk. w 



very limited number of eggs of the Great Auk known to be in existence, examples 

 have changed hands rather frequently of late years. Most of these are disposed 

 of by auction by Mr. J. C. Stevens, in his well known Auction Rooms in King 

 Street, Covent Garden. Prices have increased enormously in the last half century. 

 An egg, purchased from a dealer in Paris for 200 francs, realized 180 guineas in 

 1895. Yarrell's egg, which, at his death in 1856, only fetched /21 in Mr. Stevens' 

 Rooms, was sold again in 1894 for 300 guineas. This is probably the highest 

 price paid at a sale by public auction for one of these eggs. 



The adult in summer dress had the head, hinder part of the neck, chin, 

 throat, back, wings, and tail, black ; between the beak and the eye an oval patch 

 of white ; secondaries tipped with white ; front of the lower neck, breast, belly, 

 and underparts generally, white ; bill black, strong, arched, and compressed, 

 and marked with several deep furrows and ridges ; tarsi and feet black ; iris 

 dark brown. In winter the chin, throat, and front of the upper neck, became 

 white. " Total length about 30 inches ; beak 3 inches, 6 lines ; wing 6 

 inches; tail 2 inches; tarsus 2 inches, 1 line" (Dresser, "Birds of Europe"). 

 Pennant gives the length of this bird "to the end of its toes" as three feet; 

 but birds are usually measured from the tip of the beak to the tip of the tail. 

 He adds : — " The wings of this bird are so small as to be useless for flight : the 

 length, from the tip of the longest quill-feather to the first joint, being only four 

 inches and a quarter." 



Fleming's description is worth quoting in full, as this fortunate naturalist 

 saw the bird alive. " Length 3 feet ; bill, dorsally, 3, in front of the nostrils 2i, 

 in the gape 42, depth if inches; 7 ridges in the upper and 11 in the lower 

 mandible ; legs black ; irides chestnut ; margin of the eyelid black. Inside of the 

 mouth orange. Head, back and neck black, the latter with a brownish tinge. 

 Quills dusky ; secondaries tipped with white. Breast and belly white. In winter 

 the brownish-black of the throat and foreneck is replaced by white, as I had an 

 opportunity of observing in a living bird, brought from St. Kilda." 



A young bird, preserved in the Natural History Museum at Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, and figured by Mr. Symington Grieve in a most valuable paper, published 

 in the " Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists' and Microscopical 

 Society," appears to have the chin, throat and neck mottled with black and white ; 

 the upper neck and back slightly mottled ; the oval spot in front of the eye well 

 developed and conspicuous, although slightly mottled with dusky ; the bill slighter 

 than in the adult, nearly smooth, leaving only on the " upper mandible two 

 furrows, posterior end ; and under mandible, three furrows about middle." 



The white spot between the bill and the eye is probably exactly analogous 



Vol. VI. Y 



