8 INTRODUCTION. 
mistake frequently made, and attended by consequent acci- 
dents. (With larger eggs less care is required, and those of 
hawks or owls may often be carried safely in a handkerchief.) 
When all the eggs have been safely stowed away, the box 
should be put in the pocket in such a way that they shall not 
be violently jarred, when a fence is clambered over, or the 
body otherwise ungently moved. A small nest, if either rare 
or curious, should be taken with any small branches, to which 
it may be attached, and brought home in a suitable box or 
basket, and not squeezed in the hand or pocket; a bulky one 
may be safely carried in the hands. A nest on the ground 
must be taken up with peculiar care, as it may otherwise fall 
apart, and should afterwards, if necessary, be stitched to- 
gether. Nests, to be properly preserved, must be placed in 
some receptacle, where they will be free from dust, and, if 
composed of woolly materials or of feathers, constantly sup- 
plied with benzine or crystallized camphor, to prevent the 
ravages of moths. 
Eggs, to be sent by mail or express, should not be packed 
so tightly as for ordinary transportation, and may be first sur- 
rounded by tissue-paper. ‘Single eggs,” says Dr. Coues, 
‘“may be safely mailed to any distance in auger-holes bored in 
wood.” Boxes may be sent by mail at a trifling cost, when 
not sealed. Tin boxes, such as are used for tobacco, with 
tightly fitting covers, are the best. 
§I. On reaching home, the eggs must not be left in places 
where they are likely to be broken or lost, but at once blown 
and placed in your cabinet. The following are directions for 
blowing an egg in the old-fashioned way, which possesses two 
or three advantages over the modern process (among others, 
