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.

    9/72 page 239
    1896-97-] Au early notice and figure of the Great Auk, by Mr Miller Christie, F.L.S., appeared in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1894, p. 141. This article is well worth perusal, and gives a quaint repro- duction of a picture of two Alca impennis Linn, as they appear in the ‘Fourth Book of John Sellers, English Pilot’ (London, folio), a work which went through a number of editions in the latter part of the seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth. The first edition, which was published about the year 1673, does not contain the passage, which first appears (so far as I have been able to discover) on p. 17 of the edition of 1728. It occurs among some directions for sailing upon the coast of Newfoundland. For many years past alcine remains have steadily increased in value, but the market, probably owing to the high prices such natural history relics realise, is a somewhat limited one. As in all other commodities, an increase in the supply at once depresses the market, and although such increases of supply of Great Auk skins, bones, and eggs must be in the nature of things very slight, still a much more violent fall in prices follows such slight increases than in any other wares I am acquainted with. For instance, quite recently the market in Great Auk eggs was depressed owing to the supposed possi- bility of a number of eggs in the collection of a deceased collector sooner or later being offered for sale. I have every reason to believe that the collection referred to will remain in the family who at present possess it, and there is no likelihood of its coming on the market. Since the above was written I have a letter from Miss Champley, Scarborough, dated 27th January 1897, who says: “I do not purpose at present selling my nine eggs of the Great Auk, and shall be glad if you will kindly state the fact.” To most people interested in natural history, it would seem that much more interest attached to skins, skeletons, or individual bones of the bird than to its eggs. The last teach little regarding the habits and structure of the bird compared with the others. Yet the prices obtained for eggs are about as high as those obtained for skins, and quite out of all proportion higher than any price obtained for skeletons or bones. At first sight it is difficult to account for this, but a little reflection will prove that a great many have room for VOL. in. n
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