In 1999 my English friend Errol Fuller produced an extraordinary work, The Great Auk. The book incudes 450 lavishly illustrated pages on the extinct, flightless bird, and covers its ecology, habits, distribution and tragic history. I treasure my signed copy.
On June 3 1844 the last two confirmed birds were killed by fishermen on an island off the coast of Iceland. For centuries they had been hunted for their meat, down, and oil. They were already rare in Europe by the 16th century.
The bird, then known as the Gairfowl, featured in Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies, published in 1863. What a wonderful description;
Source – Gutenberg e-Book
The illustration on the left is from Errol’s book. The one on the right is from the Gutenberg eBook.
Pairs mated for life, producing a single egg each season. The unusual brown markings on each shell were unique, allowing parents to recognise their own egg on dense nesting sites.
Astonishingly, Errol’s book includes a detailed account of every known Great Auk egg, all 76 of them. Most are accompanied by an illustration. Each has a fascinating provenance and many have names to conjure with. For example, there is The Comte De Tristan’s Egg, Des Murs’ Washington Egg, and The Edinburgh Castle St. Malo Egg. As an Australian, one name which immediately caught my attention was The Captain Cook Egg. Mind you, it is suspected that the famous ornithologist and author John Gould fabricated the Cook connection to increase the value of an egg he sold in 1863.
HIGH PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
Source – Wikipedia
Claire Armistead’s review is perfect. And yes, Errol certainly does have ‘a buccaneering spirit.’ 😎
The following photo is of a 250 year old Auk Egg held by The Natural History Museum. It is rarely on display, due to the fear that the markings will fade in even low light.
Source – Natural History Museum
SYDNEY’S AUK, OBTAINED 135 YEARS AGO
A report in 1890 by the Trustees of The Australian Museum mentioned the acquisition (by exchange) of an almost complete skeleton of an Auk from the US National Museum in Washington.
Here is the skeleton pictured with an egg in 1912.
Source – The Sun, July 14 1912
In the 1920s the Great Auk was photographed (again with the egg) during an exhibition at the Museum.
It was still represented as an Auk egg in the Museum’s Facebook post in 2021;
In 1940 a journalist wrote a piece about spending a rainy day at the Museum. The ornithological exhibits were mentioned;
In the same case is the egg of the “Great Auk”. It has speckles all over it. (Smith’s Weekly, April 13 1940)
Good grief, had Errol missed this treasure during his research? It hardly seemed possible, but there was definitely no Australian owned egg described in his book. I was very excited, but unfortunately not for long.
When I enquired, the Museum informed me that they do not have an Auk’s egg and that it’s highly unlikely they ever did. Perhaps what was photographed with the skeleton was a Guillemot egg, which is similar, though significantly smaller. The Guillemot is related to the Great Auk. Records show that several of its eggs were donated to the Museum in 1893. Such misrepresentation would be unthinkable today.
A Guillemot egg.
The Auk skeleton purchased in 1890 is too fragile to be on display and it will probably never be viewed by the general public again. I was fortunate enough to obtain permission to see it, thanks to Ricky-Lee Erickson, Ornithological Collections Manager.
I couldn’t help thinking of the Louvre heist while negotiating two security gates and organising a pass via computer screen.
We went to the storage vaults with Ricky-Lee and she carefully removed the box. Back in the office the skeleton was revealed. Oddly enough it was also the first time Ricky-Lee had seen the specimen. How moving it was to view the bones of this creature, hunted to extinction by man. Its ribs were scarcely thicker than string. There were some dislodged fragments, evidence of how easily damage can occur.
A powerful symbol of man’s destructive nature.
Returning to the eggs, their rarity means that along with those of the extinct Elephant Bird they are incredibly expensive.
In mid August 1910 one was sold at a London auction house. The following, rather unkind piece on the poor birds subsequently appeared in the West Gippsland Press.
Surely an unfair representation!
For the sake of balance I have added something lighthearted, and a little more positive;
Source – The Australasian, July 16 1916
HERE IS AN EGG RECENTLY AUCTIONED BY SOUTHEBY’S. ON THE RARE OCCASIONS AUK EGGS ARE OFFERED FOR SALE THEY BRING AROUND EIGHTY TO NINETY THOUSAND POUNDS EACH.
I think I would prefer this Faberge Auk, exquisitely carved in rock crystal and with a ruby eye. It’s in the Royal Collection and probably even more expensive.
Other books on lost animals and birds by Errol Fuller.
