INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. 9 
almost impossible to get them clean. One, met with on one of the 
Essex marshes a year or two since, which was the only one yet 
laid and apparently not a day old, was so engrained with dirt or 
mud that it defied all efforts to restore it to its pristine 
whiteness. In the case of an originally white egg, such efforts 
will not do much harm; in the case of an egg strongly marked 
with deep colours, it is a different matter. The eftorts to remove’ 
the clay or dirt imparted by the feet of the parent bird may 
succeed in removing the stains in question, but may also very 
likely remove some of the tints or stronger colouring too. It 
must be remembered that the deeper colours of many eggs are 
not “fast,” -at all events when they have not been long laid, 
and that attempts at cleansing, more vigorous than judicious, may 
easily produce an undesired result. 
If the vent-hole is necessarily made large, there is no objection 
to placing a piece of thin or gauze paper, wetted with the varnish 
or white of the egg, so as to cover the entire orifice, and so 
exclude dust or other intrusive substances. As to mounting the 
eges, and labelling for insertion in the collection, much depends 
on taste. An ordinary “ printer’s” card is as good for the 
_ purpose as anything, and a little very strong gum-water is the 
only other requisite. A little attention to placing the eggs sym- 
metrically and neatly, and the use of a few gun-wads or half- 
pence or small wooden wedges, to retain the eggs, when accu- 
rately set in their true position, until the gum has had time to 
harden, are matters which will almost surely suggest themselves 
to any youthful egg-fancier who is only tolerably given to admire 
the “simplex munditiis.” As for labels, they inay either be 
neatly written, or procured, at a very light cost, printed on purpose 
for such application. 
