16 BIRDS' NESTS. 



torn to pieces, and its eggs broken, would have 

 ever come back again. 



The next thing to be done was to empty 

 the eggs of their contents ; for if they had 

 been put away as they were, they would not 

 only have been liable to be broken, but would 

 have rotted and lost their colour. Accordingly 

 he got a fine hollow straw, and having bored 

 a hole with a pin, in a part of the egg which 

 could be hid from sight by laying the egg on 

 the table, he put the straw through the hole 

 and blew gently, when both white and yolk 

 ran out of the same hole. This, he said, was 

 the best way of blowing eggs. The plan, which 

 boys usually pursue, of making a hole at each 

 end, is a bad one, since two holes weaken the 

 shell more than one, and destroy the shape of 

 the egg. Beside this, when eggs are placed 

 in a museum, they will be injured by insects, 

 if the holes are not closed with some substance 

 which the insects will not touch ; and of course 

 it is easier to stop one hole than two. 



