INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. iy 
paper while the incident is still fresh, and the memory of it not 
interfered with by other and newer matters of strong interest, the 
record is sure to be accurate; while mere recollection at a later 
date is about sure to be insufficient or untrustworthy. 
Perhaps the boy-collector too may not think a few sentences 
about blowing and drying and mounting his egg-treasures either 
tiresome or unnecessary. As arule, let the egg intended to be 
kept be blown and dried as soca as possible. There are several 
reasons for this piece of advice. The light shells travel more 
safely than the full ego; the egg-shells do not suffer detriment 
from lying overlooked with their contents rotting within, as often 
happens with the collector of un-careful and un-precise habits ; 
they are put into a state of comparative readiness for prompt 
and complete preparation and arrangement; and though last not 
least, a good, useful, methodical habit is encouraged in the col- 
lector himself. 
There are several ways of blowing an egg and going through 
the preparatory stages of fitting it to take its place in a collection. 
There are also instruments for extracting the contents of the 
shell so as to obviate the necessity of making more than one hole. 
I don’t think they are likely to be of much use toa mere boy. I 
am sure they would be a great deal of trouble, and I don’t think 
that the end gained would repay the trouble and care expended. 
Thave always found a small hole, only just large enough to admit 
the passage of sufficient air to expel the contents, made very care- 
fully and neatly at the small end, and a larger one about half-way 
between the great end and the line of greatest diameter, which need 
not be more than a line in breadth for the very largest eggs (if not 
“hard-sat,””) quite sufficient for my purpose, and not objectionable 
on the score of disfiguring the shell; for by mounting the egg 
with the larger or vent hole, downwards—the smaller hole being 
C 
