7422 Birds. 



If any of the detached pieces have been destroyed or are lost, pieces 

 of paper corresponding in shape with the various openings, but of 

 larger size, must be cut, and slits of some depth and pretty close 

 together made with a pair of scissors all round the edges (see Mr. 

 Newton's paper, fig. 21, Zool. 7198), so that the proper degree of con- 

 vexity may be given to each piece according as that part of the shell to 

 which it is to be applied is more or less convex. The pieces must then 

 be introduced into the openings they are intended to fill up, and gummed 

 on to the inside ; a bit of stick or a piece of wire introduced through 

 the aperture originally made in the shell for the purpose of emptying 

 it of its contents will materially assist in the operation, which a little 

 practice will enable the operator to perform without much difficulty. 

 Then when the inner crust has been formed and has become dry, 

 pounded chalk mixed with a solution of gum arable, so as to be of 

 about the same consistence as soft mortar, should be spread evenly 

 over the paper to the thickness of the shell ; this will tend greatly to 

 strengthen the injured specimen. If the operator chooses to make 

 the composition resemble the real shell it can be done by applying 

 the requisite colouring matter. I do not anticipate any objection to a 

 restoration of the kind on the ground that it may be made so perfectly 

 as to enable a dishonest person to practise imposition in the sale or 

 exchange of a specimen so treated, for although in the cabinet drawer 

 or at a distance it may look very well, a close inspection will enable 

 any one to see clearly enough what has been done, however ingeniously 

 the restoration may have been effected. 



In one of my birds' nesting excursions, an excursion which took 

 place soon after I began to collect, 1 found a nest containing one egg 

 which I could not make out. In the hope of being able to obtain an 

 additional number of eggs, as well as the opportunity of ascertaining 

 what description of bird it was to which the nest belonged, I allow'ed 

 it to remain undisturbed, but in the course of the night following 

 the egg was destroyed by vermin of some kind (I believe the depreda- 

 tor to have been a field mouse); I therefore lost my specimen and 

 with it all chance of identifying the bird that produced it. This was 

 a lesson I did not forget, but by which I was resolved to profit, so on 

 my next excursion I took care to provide myself before starting, and 

 take with me a number of common birds' eggs of various sizes and 

 kinds, and whenever T chanced to meet with the nest of a bird at all 

 rare that had begun to lay, but had not produced the full number, I at 

 once made sure of the specimen or specimens the nest contained, 

 substituting for them some of the common ones I had brought with 



