COLLECTION OF NESTS AND EGGS 



75 



the collector in all cases to preserve this organ perfectly, as repre- 

 sented in the annexed engraving (Fig. 3). Before proceeding to 

 skin the specimen a narrow-bladed knife should 

 be introduced into its mouth, and by taking 

 hold of the tongue {A) by the fingers or for- 

 ceps, the muscles {B B) by which it is attached 

 to the lower jaw should be severed as far as 

 they can be reached, care being of course taken 

 not to puncture the windpipe (C C) ; and later J? / 



in the operation of skinning, when dividing 

 the body -from the neck or head, not to cut 

 into or through it. This done, the windpipe 

 can be easily withdrawn entire and separated 

 from the neck, and then the sternal apparatus 

 being removed as before described, its course 

 must be traced to where, after branching off 

 in a fork (/>), the bronchial tubes {E E) join 

 the lungs. At these latter points it is to be 

 cut off. Then rinsing it in cold water, and 

 leaving it to dry partially, it may, while yet 

 pliant, be either wrapped round the sternum, 

 or coiled up and labelled separately" (Professor 

 Alfred Newton). 



§ 9.— COLLECTION OF NESTS 

 AND EGGS 



Ornitholog'y and Oolog-y are twin studies, 

 or rather one includes the other. A collection 

 of nests and eggs is indispensable for any 

 thorough study of birds ; and many persons 

 find peculiar pleasure in forming one. Some, 

 however, shrink from robbing birds' nests as 

 something particularly cruel — a sentiment 

 springing, no doubt, from the sympathy and 

 deference that the tender office of maternity 

 inspires. But with all proper respect for the 

 humane emotion, it may be said simply, that 

 birds'-nesting is not nearly so cruel as bird- 

 shooting. What I said in a former section, 

 in endeavouring to guide search for birds, 

 applies in substance to hunting for their nests ; 

 the essential difference is, that the latter are of 



D 



Fio. 3. — Tracliea or wind- 

 pipe of the male red-breasted 

 merganser, Mergus serrator, 

 about J nat. size, viewed from 

 above (belli nd) ; after Newton. 

 A, tongue ; B B, its attach- 

 ments ; C C, windpipe, dilated 

 in the middle and swelling 

 below into a bony box, D ; 

 E E, bronchial tubes, going 

 to lungs. 



