120 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



name of the bird looks very neatly. In the case of small 

 birds always preserve the nests as they are often more 

 interesting and valuable than the eggs themselves. All 

 the eggs of the same nest, and the nest, being numbered 

 the same, by a reference to the little note-book the 

 identification of any eggs (even if they get mixed) is 

 very easy and the history of any specimen can be ascer- 

 tained. If an egg has been set on very long this will be 

 found a good process to clean out the embryo. Make a 

 little larger hole than usual in the side, pick out as 

 much of 'the \-oung bird as 3-ou safely can and then blow 

 water into the egg with a blow-pipe ; let it stand for 

 some days in a dark drawer or box. Keep repeating 

 this process about ever}* third day, gradually blowing 

 more water into the shell and picking a little out till the 

 whole of the embryo has decayed and is removed. This 

 is a safe and sure way for a rare and valuable egg. I 

 often put large eggs where the cabinet-bug — Dermetes 

 — can get into them and clean out any foreign matter 

 adhering to the shell. 



Among the subjects in which Mr. Boardman was 

 interested were those of albinism and melanism. These 

 singular freaks in nature, the perfectly white bird with 

 pink eyes, the parentage of which was of a different fixed 

 type ; with the opposite of albinism, melanism, the 

 abnormal development of black or dark pigment in the 

 pelage of an animal or the plumage of a bird, interested 

 Mr. Boardman greatly. He had the largest collection of 

 albinos among his birds of any private collector in the 

 United States. In his museum were the following — 

 the list having been copied from the catalogue of birds 





