The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-31
THE GREAT AUKs EGGS.
They Are Extremely Valuable and
Rare-Ihe Prices They Bring


From the CornhiH Magazine.
nIsSs an egg Of the great aux was sold
for 100 guine IS. while more recently an egg
of the same species fetched s2@5' ana
although these may seem enormous sums 70
give for relic, the transactions are not
without others to keep them in countenance.
Only few years ago two eggs OF the same
kind fetched 100 aud lO2 gllneaS respect
lively, while the egg first nane1 realizeu'
a little over twenty years ago, rs lbs.
At that time it as discovered, together
with four others, packed away IN dust
covered box IN the museum OF the Royal
College of Surgeons, these bsi7g sold IN
1865. From this 1t would seem that IN the
pathological market the complete shell OF
a great auk's egg Is worth nearly 4ltO, ana
a broken one only go less. IL Will De seen
that the purchase Of one OF these may be
good investment. and what a mine Of wealth
a great aux that was good layer might
prove to his fortunate poSsesSor can only %
cou1ecturei At the present time the num-
Der Of eggs of this species known 70 exist Is
sixty-six-twenty-f n We OF which are in muse
ums and forty-ODe in private collections; OF
the total number, fOrty-three, are retained
in Great Britain When bird becomes 50
rare that the individual remains can be
counted, the same may be taken to be prac-
tically extinct as a species. The great aux
has pursued policy of extinction for the
past two or three centuries, until now, like
the mighty moa and the dodo, it has ceased
TO exist The great aux, or garefowl, was
one of those birds which, from long disuse.
hai lost at once the power Of fight and
preservation. 1t was a great stumbling
bird, as large as a goose, and nl-adapted
to travel on land. How these
things told against it may be in
ferred from the story Of one Capt. Richard
Whitbourne, who, writing Of the discovery
of Newfoundland in 1920, says that among
the abundant waterfowl of these parts are
penguins great auksl las bigge as geese,
and FIVE not. for they have but a short
wing, and they multiply so infinitely, upon
a certain fat island, that men drive them
from thence upon a boord, into their boats
by hundreds at time.p This process of
extinction went on in Iceland and else
where until, about the middle of the pres
ent century, hardly any birds remained.
The Icelanders robbed the auks of their
eggs for domestic use, and upon one occa-
sion the crew of a British privateer
remained upon one of the SKerriers all
day killing many birds and treeding down
their eggs and young This went on until
the last birds were taken, and there is but
the faintest hope that it may yet linger on
in the inaccessible north. Althoug awk-
ward, and travelling with the greatest diff
Guilty on land the great aux was perfectly
at home in the water, and Travelled both
upon and under the surface with the rapidity
of fish. The time of haunting the land was
during the breeding season, in early sum-
mer. At this period the aux resorted to the
rocks, in the dark recesses of which the
females deposited one large egg-large
even for the size Of the bird. These had a
whitish-green ground, streaked with brown,
and nearly five inches in length.