Auk Eggs

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 65, 18 March 1936, Page 2

Auk Eggs

PERFECT SPECIMENS WORTH £3OO. Hen auk eggs, said to be the most valuable in the world, each -worth its weight in gold, recontly arrived at Harvard University. This collection was tho bequest of the late Colonel J. E. Thayer, and is now boing 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 tho museum are noweleven eggs of the extinct auk, , one having already been given to the university by tho head of tho Department of Zoology at Harvard, Dr. William Barbour, some years ago. There are said to be about seventythree auk eggs in existence,__ seventyone of them having been photographed by the expert, Edward Bidwell. Prior to the great auction hold in Covent Garden, London, last Fall, notice was Bent to the various private collectors and museums, and a phamphlet, prepared by Thomas Parkin, L.L.S., giving a short history of the great auk or garefowl, (Alca imponnis, Linn.), was made available to tho bidders. Perhaps the most interesting of all tho famous eggs in the new Harvard collection is tho one that was orginally picked up by a schoolboy named Wallace Hewitt for a few shillings. lie found it at an auction in Kent.