52 



THE OOLOGIST 



Now a word in regard to the me- 

 dium for marking: the old time hon- 

 ored method, is by a soft lead pencil, 

 which does very well for field use, 

 but I wish to recommend a small steel 

 crow quill pen, and a bottle of water- 

 proof India ink. These two articles 

 will cost you just fifty cents, and with 

 them you can mark the smallest or 

 largest specimens without the danger 

 of breakage from pressing it too hard, 

 as sometimes occurs with the pencil. 

 With the knowledge that it will stay 

 on until you wish to remove it, which 

 is very quickly done by moistening 

 the figures you wish to remove, with 

 a touch of alcohol, and wiping with a 

 damp ray, otherwise no amount of 

 handling, wetting or polishing will 

 smear them, as happens quite often 

 with the soft lead pencil. Every col- 

 lector knows that it is always a tick- 

 lish job to mark a Hummingbird's egg 

 neatly and yet small enough to look 

 good on so small a shell. With the 

 crow quill it is quite easy. 



Now one more thing before I quit: 1 

 received some specimens from corre- 

 spondence, and wishing to change the 

 progressive number to my own series, 

 I started to wash them off, but alas! 

 for they were written on with indel- 

 ible, and the rest is too sad to tell. 



H. A. Edwards. 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



G. A. Abbott. 



After April 1, 1916, the address of 

 Gerald A. Abbott, the well-known Chi- 

 cago Oologist and business manager 

 of the Wilson Ornithological Club will 

 be, Portland, Oregon, care Marshall 

 Wells Hardware Company, with whom 

 he has accepted a position as traveling 

 representative. 



Egg Preparation. 



I will tell you my plan by which 1 

 prepare my eggs at small holes very 



easily. I now never use any egg drill 

 but the smallest drill made for any 

 egg up to the size of the Red-tailed 

 Hawk egg. Unless incubation is one- 

 third on, all eggs up to the size of a 

 Bob White I drill the hole in the egg 

 the size I want, then I take a lining 

 cutter of my own make and run it 

 around in the hole drilled in the egg 

 and cut out the little round plug which 

 wants to keep the hole stopped up as 

 all collectors know this lining bothers 

 a lot about blowing the contents out 

 of an egg. When this is done I then 

 take a blow pipe of my own make and 

 blow a small bit, all that will come 

 out easily, then I take the egg between 

 my finger and shake same until the 

 yellow and white in the egg is thor- 

 oughly mixed together and becomes 

 then like water, then the contents of 

 the egg can be blown out in a moment 

 with ease. I only do eggs this way 

 that is above the size of a Bob White 

 egg. Where eggs are advanced in in- 

 cubation and the embryo formed, 1 

 drill into them and blow out of them 

 all 1 can, then I put water or alcohol 

 in them enough to fill all the space in 

 the egg, then I put the eggs in a safe 

 place with holes up so water or alcohol 

 will stay in them. I let them stand 

 about twenty-eight hours, then I take 

 them up and blow everything out of 

 them I can and if the embryo has not 

 become thin like blood so it will blow 

 out all of it, I put the water or alco- 

 hol in again until the egg is full, then 

 let it stand twenty-four hours again 

 and by this time the embryo is nearly 

 always rotted to where it will come 

 out very easily. This is my plan to 

 prepare eggs to prevent having large 

 holes in them. 



I do hate to see a fine valuable set 

 of eggs with holes in them that look 

 as if they were bored out with an inch 

 drill like many I have in my collection 

 taken by collectors in all parts of the 



