NOTES AND QUERIES. 193 



The Birds of Surrey. — As I hope to publish a book on this subject as 

 soon as the material collected is as complete as possible, I should be much 

 obliged if any of your readers would draw my attention to any rare local 

 occurrences; notes in local newspapers; local lists; old books or MSS. 

 relating to Surrey birds ; public or private local collections ; names of any 

 correspondents likely to assist ; local names of species; personal observa- 

 tions, or any matters of local ornithological interest. I should also be glad 

 to know whether the late Messrs. James Lewcock and Mansell, of Farnham, 

 left auy manuscripts or published lists of birds. Communications on any of 

 these points will be gratefully accepted. — J. A. Bucknill (Hylands House, 

 Epsom). 



Sale of Great Auk and Egg. — The collection of birds' eggs and nests 

 formed by Mr. Leopold Field was disposed of by auction at the well-known 

 rooms of Mr. Stevens, in King Street, Covent Garden, on the 22nd and 

 23rd April last. The feature of the second day's sale was the inclusion of 

 a very well-preserved specimen of Alca impennis (lot 260), with an egg 

 (lot 261), both the property of Sir Frederick Milner, Bart, M.P., who 

 inherited them with the collection of the late Sir William Milner. The 

 history of lot 260, as printed in the sale catalogue, is altogether misleading, 

 and the statement by Graham of York, to the effect that the bird was taken 

 in the Orkneys, was (like other statements made by that dealer in regard to 

 rare birds) wholly unreliable, although very likely credited by the late Sir 

 William Milner. The specimen in question is in all probability the bird 

 which Mr. A. D. Bartlett bought from a stranger for a " Northern Diver," 

 and sold in September, 1844, to Shaw of Shrewsbury, who in turn disposed 

 of it to Mr. Buddicom of Smethcote, Shrewsbury, from whom it passed, 

 through Gardner, to Graham of York, who sold it to Sir William Milner as 

 having been killed in Orkney ! Having been recently re-stuffed by Culling- 

 ford of Durham, who certified to its being " a genuine specimen throughout, 

 with not a single false feather in it," it was offered for sale as announced, 

 on April 23rd. The bidding commenced at £100, and proceeded gradually 

 to £350 ; at this point, no further bid being obtainable, the auctioneer 

 declared it to have been bought in by the owner at £360, the reserved 

 price not having been reached. We have since learnt that it has been sold 

 for the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh, for £350. With regard 

 to the egg (lot 261) above mentioned, the sale catalogue gives no indi- 

 cation of its history ; but we are enabled to state, on the authority of the 

 late Mr. Robert Champley of Scarborough, that on the 10th August, 1860, 

 he met Sir William Milner by appointment ; that Sir William then showed 

 him this egg, and allowed him to make a water-colour sketch of it (which 

 we have seen), and at the same time informed him that while staying at 

 Heidelberg (qu. Dusseldorf), in the autumn of 1847, he heard that M. 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX. MAY, 1895. Q 



