The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-06-01

It Was an Egg of the Great AUX, . Very
Rare Bird.

The highest price ever paid for an egg,
so far as known, since the world began,
was that received at an auction sale of
the effects of Mrs. Wise, held In Lon
don the other day. A single egg was
there offered, and, after an exciting
struggle between a number of Ornithol-
ogists, it was struck off at $1,000. 1t
was an egg of the great aux, bird now
supposed to be extinct, but quite plenti-
full within the memory Of some Of the
older whalers who frequented the north
Atlantic in their boyhood days. 1t is
five years since an egg of this bird
changed hands, and then it was sold by
the British College of Surgeons for 800,
while in 1869 Lord Garvagh at an auc-
ton sale in London paid $500 for single
egg. Previous to that the prices obtained
for this sort of eggs dwindled down by
easy gradations to As. 3d., at which price
one was sold in 1880 in Paris, although
the bird itself was then to be found about
the islands of the north Atlantic.
There is mounted skin of the aux in
the American Museum of Natural His
tory in this city that was purchased in
London in 1869 for $625. 1t is one of
eighty skins known to be in existence in
the world. There are also ten complete
| skeletons, besides numerous parts of
| skeletons and several mummies
The form of the aux is familiar to all
who have read illustrated accounts of
| early voyages to Greenland. 1t was the
! penguin of the north Atlantic. 1t had a
squatty, goose shaped body, and was
| from twenty eight to thirty inches long
on the average. 1t had wings, however,
| that were only between five and six
inches long, and it was therefore incap-
able of flight. 1t is pictured in the old
sea stories as sitting up solemn and
| dignified in ranks along the sand and on
the bleakest and most barren coasts as
the sailors approached the land in boats.
1t was not easily frightened by the APP
proach Of man, who was apparently its
sole enemy. When disturbed it waddled
away about as fast as a man could walk,
taking very short steps, but taking them
rapidly. On account of its gait it was
called the wobble in some of the early
books, such as the work of John Josse-
Ign, gent, on "New England Rarities,"
printed in 1912. Not that the bird
was a rarity then; on the contrary, it
was seen in great numbers as far south
on the New England coast as the yacht
ing center of the United States-Boston.
At that time and for 100 years later it
was the custom of many of the fisher
men frequenting the banks of Newfound-
land, particularly the French, to victual
their vessels with the flesh of the aux,
killing and sailing down as many as
| would last for the entire cruise. Their
81 sc N,l. l. Id
simplest possible. The ships boats were
rowed into some quiet cove. frequented
by the auks, and moored few feet from
the land. Then planks were laid from
the beach or the rocks to the gunwales
IF the boats, and the auks were driven on
board in single file until their boats We're
loaded. A man with a club knocked
them on the head as they reached the
boat, and dumped them under the
thwarts.
When driving the birds on tho boats it
was necessary to station man with
club on each side of the gang plank to
keep them from dropping off into the
water. Once af1oat the awkward waddle
became the swiftest and most graceful of
motions. No other water fowl could ap-
proach the wonderful speed of the aux
on the water; indeed, it could swim as
rapidly as some of tho more numbering
birds can fly.
Although on account of its fishy food
it was somewhat oily when in good con-
dition, it was nevertheless so much es-
teemed by the sailors that its numbers
diminished continuously from the time
the banks of Newfoundland began to be
much frequented, so that by the begin
ming of the Nineteenth century it was no
longer hunted for food, So few were to
be had that they were not worth the
time required to take them. However,
in the year 1907 a British privateer varied
its occupations of pursuing French
merchant vessels and impressing Yankee
sailors by going to the islands off Iceland
for a supply of fresh aux meat. Great
numbers of the birds were killed, many
being left dead that could not be removed
because the ship had all she could use.
Three years later the people of the Farce
Islands, being threatened by starvation
on account of a failure in the fisheries,
visited Iceland, and about completed the
destruction begun by the privateer.
That the aux never recovered from
these blows even on the coasts best fitted
for its maintenance was due to the fact
that the aux laid but one egg year. 1t
made no nest, but deposited the egg on
the bare rock. 1t was an astonishingly
large egg, averaging nearly five by three
inches in length and diameter. 1t was
shaped much like big California pear,
being very small at one end, popularity
of all birds eggs that are laid in exposed
places as this was. Being small at one
end, it would, when the wind moved it,
simply roll around in the arc of very
small circle. 1t was of creamy white
color, irregularly marked with brown
and black patches.
Although the aux is supposed to be ex-
tinct, there is a possibility that another,
perhaps several, may yet be discovered.
When the fishermen ceased to prosecute
the auk-that is, when it became rare
the naturalists stepped in to completely
exterminate it. The last auks seen about
which there is no dispute were two killed
on the coast Of Iceland in 1874, but
young one is reported to have been picked
up dead on the coast of Labrador in 1870.