HIGH-PRICED EGGS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 103, 12 February 1936, Page 8

HIGH-PRICED EGGS.

THE EXTINCT AUK. Hen auk eggs, said to he the most valuable in the world, each worth its weight in gold, recently arrived at Harvard University, says the “New York Times.” This collection was the bequest of the late Colonel J. E. Thayer, and is now being made ready for study by the curator of ornithology, as each of these rarities has a most interesting history. In some instances the specimens have been the property of other famous museums. Their average value is about £3OO each. In one drawer in the museum are now eleven eggs of the extinct auk, one having already been given to th(| university by the head of the Department of Zoology at Harvard, Dr. XX illiam Barbour, some years ago. There are said to he about seventythree auk eggs in existence, seventyone of them having been photographed by tbe expert, Edward Bidwell. Prior to the great auction held in Covent Garden, London, last autumn, notice was sent to the various private collectors and museums, and a pamphlet, prepared by Thomas Parkin, 1.L.5., giving a short history of the great aiuc or ga re fowl (Alca impennis, Linn.), was made available to the bidders. Eggs that were cracked or broken brought a. mere £IOO. But a (‘hoi e specimen, such as that disco\eied bj Professor Alfred Newton in a box of ten auk eggs at the Royal College of Surgeons, where it had lain lor forty years, was at once snapped up by a private 'collector who willingly paid £3OO for it. Perhaps the most interesting of all the famous eggs in the new Harvard collection is the one that was originally picked up by a schoolboy named Wallace Hewitt for a few shillings. He found it at an auction in Kent.