FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 



specimen to which some slight solidity can be imparted with cotton. 

 It is unnecessary even to close up the hole. It is best, on all 

 accounts, to keep eggs in sets, a set being the natural clutch, or 

 whatever less number was taken from a nest. The most scrupu- 

 lous attention must be paid to accurate, complete, and permanent 

 labelling. So important is this, that the undeniable defacing of a 

 s})ecimen, by writing on it, is no offset to the advantages accruing 

 from such fixity of record. It is practically impossible to attach a 

 label, as is done with a birdskin, and a loose label is always in 

 danger of being lost or displaced. Write on the shell, then, as 

 many items as possible ; if done neatly, on the side in which the 

 hole was bored, at least one good " show side " remains. An egg 

 should always bear the same number as the parent, in the collector's 

 record. In a general collection, where separate ornithological 

 and oological registers are kept, identification of egg with parent is 

 nevertheless readily secured, by making one the numerator the 

 other the denominator of a fraction, to be simply inverted in its 

 respective application. Thus, bird No. 456 and egg No. 123 are 

 identified by making the former A|f , the latter iff. All the eggs 

 of a clutch should have the same number. If the shell be large 

 enough, the name of the species should be written on it ; if too 

 small, it should be accompanied by a label, and may have the name 

 indicated by a number referring to a certain catalogue. According 

 to my " Check List," for example, No. 4 would indicate Turchs 

 ilkicus, the common redwing. The date of collection is a highly 

 desirable item; it may be abbreviated thus: 3/6/82 means 3d June 

 1882. It is well to have the egg authenticated by the collector's 

 initials at least. Since sets of eggs may be broken up for dis- 

 tribution to other cabinets, yet pei^manent indication of the size of 

 the clutch be Avanted, it is well to have some method. A good one 

 is to write the number of the clutch on each egg composing it, 

 giving each egg of the set, moreover, its individual number. Suj:)- 

 posing, for example, the clutch No. }f f contained five eggs ; one of 

 of them would be ^f ^ /5/1 : the next A|-| /5/2, and so on. But 

 it should be remembered that all such arbitrary memoranda must 

 be systematic, and be accompanied by a key. Eggs may be kept 

 in cabinets of shallow drawers in little pasteboard trays, each hold- 

 ing a set, and containing a paper label on which various items that 



this method of emptying eggs is by using very many layers of thin imper and plenty 

 of thick gum, but tliis is, of course, the most tedious. Nevertheless, it is quite 

 worth the trouble in the case of really rare specimens, and they will be none the 

 worse for operating upon from the delay of a few days caused by waiting for the gum 

 to dry and harden. The naturalist to whom this method first occurred has found it 

 answer remarkably well in every case in which it has been used, from the egg of an 

 eagle to that of a humming-bird, and among English oologists it has been generally 

 adopted" (A. Newton, in Smithsoiiian Misc. Coll., p. 139, 1860). 



