BULLETIN 39, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [4] 
thoroughly fixed ina fresh-laid egg. This applies especially to the eggs 
of many game birds and hawks, as well as to others. The shells of 
some of the water birds, as the Pelicans, Gannets, and Cormorants, 
are covered with a more or less uneven deposit of lime. This should 
not be scraped or scrubbed off. Especial care should be taken to 
thoroughly clean all white eggs both inside and outside, particularly, 
those of Woodpeckers. 
Eggs should be blown or emptied through a single small hole neatly 
drilled on one side, as shown in the figure on page 8. It is well to com- 
mence making this hole with a needle and finishing it with an egg dr/lIl, 
which is given a rotary motion between the thumb and forefinger. In 
marked or spotted eggs the poorest or least marked side should always 
be selected for this purpose. Great care should be taken to remove the 
entire contents. “ 
A simple blowpipe and a few different sized drills, like those figured 
below, which may be obtained at any Tattnall sae dealer’s establish- 
ment, are all the implements required to blow an egg. 







Tweezers. 
Many collectors use very fine glass points attached to a rubber bulb, 
others use an instrument manufactured by Mr. E. W. Ellsworth, of East 
o_o 
