Sale of an Egg of the Great Auk 
in London. 
The following is taken from the Pall Mall 
Gazette of Dec. 14 , 18 S 7 . The sale was held on 
Dec. 13 th: 
“ An egg sold for 160 guineas. — At Mr. J. C. 
Stevens’ auction rooms in King street, Covent 
Garden, this week, a large number of or¬ 
nithologists assembled to witness the sale of an 
egg of the Great Auk. Before offering the lot, 
Mr. Stevens remarked that, in 1880 , two eggs of 
this bird, both of which had been broken, were 
sold by him, and that they fetched 100 and 102 
guineas respectively. Of the recorded eggs, 
twenty-five were in eighteen museums, and for¬ 
ty-one in nineteen private collections, forty- 
three out of the sixty-six being in Great Brit¬ 
ain. The first bid of fifty guineas was made by 
a well-known ornithologist, and this was fol¬ 
lowed by sixty guineas from Mr. L. Field, to 
whom the egg was eventually knocked down at 
160 guineas.” 
0.&0. .&m:.F fl h,1888 p. 31 
I have an old book, printed over one hundred years 
ago in England, describing a voyage to the North Sea 
by the Danes. From a description I think they saw the 
Great Auk . Possibly they may be there now? Dr. T. 
S. Hitchcock. 
O &Q. XIV. May. 1889 p.77 
The Great Auk in the U. S. National Museum.—The Great Auk in the 
collection of the U. S. National Museum has recently been remounted by 
Mr. N. R. Wood, and is thereby greatly improved in appearance. Al¬ 
though the specimen is more than fifty years old, the skin proved to be in 
fair condition, although naturally so venerable a bird needed careful ma¬ 
nipulation. 
Like nearly all mounted specimens of the Great Auk this was far too 
long, and even now that it has been shortened between two and three 
inches still remains at least so much longer than in life. 
Measured along the curve the length of the stuffed specimen is a little 
more than twenty-nine inches from tip of beak to root of tail, while a 
large skeleton, similarly measured, is but a trifle more than twenty-live 
inches in length. 
A life-sized, colored photograph of the bird as it appeared before re¬ 
mounting is preserved in the collection. — F. A. Lucas, Washington , 
D. C. 
Auk, VII. A^ril, 1HO, p. X03~XC^. 
