44 



THE OOOLGIST 



by the Black Terns uttering their shrill 

 angry note which they emphasized as 

 they dove at my head. Their young 

 were swimming about in the grass. I 

 caught one downy little fellow which I 

 of course had to examine before I let 

 him go, and there was a corresponding 

 anxiety in I he angry notes overhead. 

 At first those fellows vexed me, but 

 soon it seemed to blend with the scene- 

 ry. It was entirely too late fur eggs yet 

 I found one set of two fresh ones, 

 probably the flood had succored me by 

 destroying the first nest of this pair. 

 The ground color is yellowish green; 

 they ai'e thickly L spotted with dark 

 brown and some lilac. The brown 

 forms a broad wreath near the larger 

 end of one. The nest was a slight de- 

 pression at the top of a semi-floating 

 mound of dead rushes and mud openly 

 situated. There was a slight attempt 

 to line the resting cavity with some 

 grass. In my experience of a former 

 year I found that the nests are all open- 

 ly situated, sometimes they are of the 

 •above description and sometimes they 

 are broken down Musk Rat houses. I 

 found that the ground-color of the eggs 

 varies from brownish to quite green'and 

 that there is liable to be a wreath at 

 the larger end of a good many of the 

 eggs, rather lower than is common in 

 smaller eggs. In the majority of cases 

 I found but two eggs in a nest, only 

 once or twice did I find three. 



John Larsen. 



Scientific Osteology for Amatures. 



Being interested in the study of 

 osteology I read with much interest 

 the article in Nov. '92 Oologist relating 

 to this branch of science. Having 

 noticed a few points that I think can 

 be greatly improved upon I will "en- 

 deavor to give the process used by 

 scientific workmen. 



Now let us suppose that we have just 

 returned from a hunt through the 



wood lands aud among our game we 

 have a fine Blue Jay. We will not 

 preserve the skin, but the skeleton. 



The first thing an amatuer would be 

 likely to do would be to strip off the 

 skin and rough flesh, dump the bird 

 in a kettle and boil it until the flesh 

 would all come off. 



Ah, but this is wromg, vastly wrong 

 for by so doiug you boil the grease and 

 fat into the bone and no human 

 agency can ever remove it — Not even 

 the hot rays of the tropical sun would 

 bleach it, and forever after your skele- 

 ton is of a dark greasy color. The only 

 true way is to lay the specimen before 

 you on a table and with a sharp scalpel 

 or knife remove the skin and all the 

 flesh possible, then lay the skeleton 

 away until it becomes thoroughly dry 

 and hard. Meanwhile take a small 

 wooden box, fill it half full of fine saud, 

 this we will lay away for future use. 



Now if the flesh has become dry and 

 hard put the skeleton in a dish and 

 pour on water enough to cover it all 

 over. Let it remain in this until it is 

 softened and the muscles and ligaments 

 are as pliable ss when fresh. You will 

 find by drying and soaking that the 

 blood has coagulated thus making the 

 flesh more compact so that when we 

 come to scraping we can remove large 

 pieces at a time and can clear the 

 skeleton much quicker. 



Now conies the hardest part of all; 

 little by little we must scrape . away 

 until every particle of the flesh is re- 

 moved, taking great care not to injure 

 the ligaments that connect the bones, 

 for we must keep them all connected 

 just as they originally were so as to 

 know the exact location of the different 

 parts in life. 



Doubtless the average amateur could 

 not clean the e'utire skeleton at one 

 time so we will lay it aside but it must 

 not be allowed to dry again until 

 finished so we will take the box before 

 described and pour water on the sand 



