BIRDS' NESTS. 53 



which was written down a statement of the 

 day, year, and place, when and where it was 

 found, together with a short description of the 

 nest, and anything else worth noticing. The 

 cards, with the eggs in them, were then laid 

 in rows in the drawers of a cabinet, so that 

 they might always be kept from light, which 

 would destroy their colour. 



Before the end of the summer, there were 

 between twenty and thirty kinds of eggs in 

 the collection ; but, among them all, there was 

 not one the loss of which occasioned pain to 

 the parent birds, with the exception of the 

 starling's eggs, and some few others taken 

 from nests which the persons who found them 

 were obliged to destroy in the course of their 

 work. 



Persons to whom the collection was shown 

 admired it very much, but generally asked if 

 it was not cruel to rob so many birds' nests. 

 When, however, they heard that not a single 

 nest had been wilfully destroyed, nor an egg 



