CARE OF A COLLECTION 21 



Care of a Collection. The best cases in which to keep a collection 

 of birdskins are known as "Cambridge cans." They are made of tin, 

 with covers which fit into grooves lined with rubber tubing, and are 

 practically air-tight. The smaller sizes cost from five dollars to seven 

 dollars and a half each, and can be obtained of Muller and Wood, of 

 New York City. 



A wooden cabinet with tight-fitting drawers and door is less ex- 

 pensive, and with ordinary care will preserve specimens for a prac- 

 tically indefinite period. The drawers should be thirty inches long by 

 sixteen inches in width. For birds the size of a Robin a depth of one 

 inch and three-quarters is sufficient, while drawers four inches deep 

 will take the largest Hawks or Owls. These drawers will hold about 

 thirty birds the size of a Robin, eighty the size of a Chickadee, and 

 eight to ten Hawks and Owls. 



Well cleaned and thoroughly poisoned specimens of small birds are 

 not likely to be attacked by the moth (Tinea) or beetles (Dermestcs 

 and Anthrenus) which so often infest poorly prepared or nonpoisoned 

 skins. Naphthaline crystals or camphor gum should be placed in each 

 drawer of the cabinet, the door of which should not be left open need- 

 lessly. If a specimen falls a victim to insects, the better plan is to 

 discard it at once. If, however, it is rare, it may be taken out-of-doors 

 and placed in an air-tight box with a few tablespoonfuls of bisulphuret 

 of carbon. 



Collecting and Preserving Nests and Eggs. The following quotation, 

 from the late Major Bendire's Instructions for Collecting, Preparing, 

 and Preserving Birds' Eggs and Nests* may be taken as authoritative: 

 "Unless the would-be collector intends to make an especial study of 

 oology and has a higher aim than the mere desire to take and accu- 

 mulate as large a number of eggs as possible regardless of their proper 

 identification, he had better not begin at all, but leave the nests and 

 eggs of our birds alone and undisturbed. They have too many enemies 

 to contend with, without adding the average egg collector to the num- 

 .ber. The mere accumulation of specimens is the least important 

 object of the true oologist. His principal aim should be to make care- 

 ful observations on the habits, call notes, song, the character of the 

 food, mode and length of incubation, and the actions of the species 

 generally, from the beginning of the mating season to the time the 

 young are able to leave the nest. This period comprises the most in- 

 teresting and instructive part of the life-history of our birds." Very 

 heartily do I endorse every word of this, and to the concluding sen- 

 tence I would add: and there can be no better way to avoid increasing 

 our knowledge of a bird's domestic life than to rob it of its eggs, and 

 destroy its home and our own opportunities at the same time. Studied 

 from a local standpoint, I confess I can see only two points of interest 

 in a bird's egg one is what the egg is in, the other is what is in the egg. 



Nevertheless, I can understand the pleasure attending the legiti- 

 *Part D. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 39, 1891, pp. 3-10. 



