Supplementary note on the great auk or garefowl (Alca impennis Linn) / by Symington Grieve.

  • Grieve, Symington.
Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Supplementary note on the great auk or garefowl (Alca impennis Linn) / by Symington Grieve. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/72 page 263
    1896-97-] five, making a total of 160 guineas, at which figure he became the purchaser.” Scarborough.—The collection of the late Mr It. Champley is still at the same address, 13 The Crescent, Scarborough, where it is in the possession of his daughter, Miss Blanche E. Champley. Stratford-on-Avon: Ettington Park, Mr S. E. Shirley.— This egg is said to have been formerly in a large collection of natural history specimens belonging to a Mr Shepherd of Bristol, and, having been labelled as the egg of a penguin, remained unnoticed for some eighty years. Writing me on 18th December 1896, Mr S. E. Shirley, says: “My egg has been here many years, and is believed to have formed part of a large collection of birds, eggs, heads, feet, &c., bought by my grandfather early this century, but the catalogue of the collection marked ‘ Catalogue of the Collection 6 of W. Shep- herd, Bristol, 1807,’ does not include the Great Auk egg; but it is badly done, and other eggs are also omitted. The egg is a very fine one, boldly and richly marked, and of good size, quite perfect, with the exception that it is blown with a rather large hole. I fear this is all. I can tell you about it. It was originally in a small cardboard case with a glass lid, and was stuck to the back of the case in quite the primitive style of egg-collectors.” Tring, Herts: Museum of the Hon. W. Rothschild.—The egg in this collection was bought about March 1889 with the collection of Count Bodern at Breslau. For further particulars see ‘ The Great Auk : its History, Archeology, and Remains,’ pp. 89, 108, and App., p. 25. United States. Washington.—The egg Ho. 15,141 in the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, is figured in the Report of the National Museum for 1888, Plate LXXIII. The following note, from the pen of Mr Frederic A. Lucas, appears opposite the plate:— The specimen measures 125 m.m. by 74 m.m. This egg was obtained from the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pa., and was originally in the collection of 0. des Murs. It is the egg figured on
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3