Iil.—Directions for Collecting Eggs. 
No egg should ever be taken till the species has been fully deter- 
mined, either by careful observation of the parent birds with a good 
pair of glasses or, if absolutely necessary, by shooting one of them. 
If the birds are not seen and positively identified, it is mere useless 
cruelty to take eggs, as in most cases they cannot be named with 
certainty and are of no scientific interest. The eggs of some few 
species, such as the Great Auk, are of course unmistakable, but 
generally speaking, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, unidentified 
eggs are best destroyed. 
Kggs should always be collected in clutches—that is to say, the 
whole number of eggs in the nest should be taken, and they should 
therefore be left undisturbed, if possible, till the full complement 
has been laid. With Ducks’ eges it is most important that samples 
of the down forming the, lining of the nest should be carefully 
collected, together with all feathers found in the nest. These should 
be placed in a small box or envelope, named, and dated. In blowing 
eggs, the plainest side should be selected, and a single hole bored in 
the middle of the shell with a drill specially made for that purpose. 
After the hole has been drilled, the lining membrane covering the 
aperture should be removed, in large eggs with a fine-pointed knife, 
in small eggs with the point of a toothpick. When the skin covering 
the hole has been removed, the egg can be blown much more easily, 
and when washed out it will drain much better. 
The egg should be held hole downwards over a lump of 
cotton or soft flannel, and the point of the blowpipe, also specially 
made for the purpose, placed in juxtaposition to the hole. By 
blowing gently or strongly, in proportion to the size of the egg, 
the contents of the shell can then be readily driven out. Having 
emptied the shell entirely of white and yolk, and rinsed it out once 
or twice with water, it should be washed out with a weak solution 
of carbolic acid, and placed on fine sawdust, or, if that is not 
available, on blotting-paper, hole downwards, to drain. 
When eggs are too hard set to admit of their being blown in the 
ordinary way, other means of extracting the chick must be resorted 
to. With large eggs in which incubation is not very far advanced, 
a fairly large hole should be drilled, and as much as possible of the 
contents of the shell removed by blowing. The remainder of the 
