THE OOLOGIST 



39 



gradually enter the egg and force the 

 contents out of the same hole. 



After the entire contents of the egg 

 has been blown out in this way, then 

 take some water in the mouth from 

 the tumbler of water standing near- 

 by and blow the water through the 

 blow pipe into the egg. Do this with 

 some force, but not enough to destroy 

 the egg shell. After the egg has been- 

 blown full of water, then blow the 

 water out of the egg. Repeat this two 

 or three times until the contents of 

 the egg are thoroughly cleansed out; 

 for any foreign matter of any kind or 

 any of the contents of the egg that 

 may be left in surely stain the shell 

 and ultimately destroy the specimen. 



After this has been done and you 

 are sure that the contents of the egg 

 is entirely out and the inner surface 

 of the shell thoroughly cleansed, then 

 lay the egg upside down with the hole 

 resting on a piece of blotting paper. 

 This should be clean and not ink 

 stained. 



Continue the same process with each 

 one of the eggs in this set, laying them 

 side by side on the blotter when the 

 blowing is completed. They should 

 be left in this position until they are 

 thoroughly dry and all the other eggs 

 taken should be drilled in exactly the 

 same manner, using care to see to it 

 that the sets do not become mixed, 

 and that each different set is kept sep- 

 arately until marked. 



If the eggs are not thoroughly 

 cleansed, their taking and prepara- 

 tion will be all to no purpose, for they 

 will finally become spotted and ulti- 

 mately disintegrate. It is always im- 

 portant to use the smallest drill pos- 

 sible on each egg. 



The above is the proceeding for 

 blowing all eggs which are fresh. 

 Makes no difference whether they are 

 the size of a goose egg or the size of 

 a Hummingbird's egg. The same pro- 



ceeding is followed from the beginning 

 to the end. 



Assuming now that all of the eggs 

 we took on the day before mentioned 

 have been blown and arranged on the 

 blotter as directed, and have been left 

 there long enough to become thor- 

 oughly dry, the next thing is to mark 

 them. The marking of specimens is 

 one of the very important steps in 

 their preparation. Care should be 

 taken to mark each set legibly and ac- 

 cording to the system used by Oolo- 

 gists. They should be marked with a 

 soft, pointed lead pencil unless you 

 are a high class expert with India ink 

 like E. J. Court at Washington and a 

 few others of his kind, who are very 

 rare indeed; but if you are then you 

 may assay the use of India ink. 



The set of Bluebird's eggs should 

 be marked as follows: Above the blow 

 hole on the larger end of the egg and 

 near the blow hole should be placed 

 nearly the figures "766," which is the 

 number of the bluebird in the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologist's Union ("A. O. U.)" 

 Check list of North American Birds. 

 To the right of the blow hole should 

 be placed a short straight line as near 

 as may be opposite the center of the 

 blow hole. Above this line should be 

 placed the letter "a" and beneath the 

 line the figure "5". The letter "a" in- 

 dicates the fact that this was the first 

 set of Bluebirds taken this year. And 

 subsequent sets should be indicated 

 by the letters b, c, d, etc. The figure 

 5 beneath this line will indicate the 

 number of eggs in the set. If the set 

 has been 4, 6 or 7 the numbers 4, 6 

 or 7, according to the number of eggs 

 in the set would be placed beneath 

 this line. And beneath the blow hole 

 irshould be placed numbers designating 

 the year in which the set was taken, 

 as 1910, 1911 or 1912, or whatever the 

 year might be. Each egg in the set 

 should be marked in exactly the same 

 way. 



