THE OOLOGIST. 



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should be, and is rapidly becoming, 

 universally known to collectors, viz. 

 caustic potash. A solution of this in- 

 jected into the eggs soou destroyed the 

 embryos and made them as easy to 

 blow as though they had been tilled 

 with water. This is the only set I owe 

 to the use of that chemical. 



I well remember the only nest of the 

 Sandhill Crane I ever found. It was 

 when I was very small, about ten years 

 old I think. My brother and myself 

 were herding cattle, and while walking 

 near the edge of a slough I saw what 

 appeared to my juvenile vision to be a 

 red bird perched upon a large sedge. 

 It was in reality the head of a female 

 Sandhill Crane who was setting on her 

 e*2gs. . When we approached she left 

 the nest, half running, half Hying, and 

 stopped a short distance away. We 

 secured the eggs, which were laid on 

 some dry grass that had been placed 

 upou the top of a half decayed muskrat 

 house and then turned our attention to 

 the owner of them. She was very fear- 

 less and would not leave us farther than 

 a few rods while we stayed near the 

 nest. 



My undeveloped mind conceived that 

 here was a good chance to cover myself 

 with glory, so repairing to a neighbor's 

 near by I borrowed a gnu, preteuding 

 that it was for my father; one barrel was 

 loaded and after approaching as near 

 as possible to the Crane I deliberately 

 placed the stock under my arm took a 

 careful (?) aim and tired. Bloodshed 

 resulted but it was from my nose, which 

 was miuus a lai'ge patch of epidermis 

 while the Crane was unharmed. The 

 eggs were taken home and placed un- 

 der a goose and in due season one 

 young Crane came forth ami was gorg- 

 ed with angle-worms till it died. The 

 Sandhill Crane has been successfully 

 reared however. 



In 1889 I Q took three sets of Traill's 

 Flycatcher from the same pair of birds. 

 The time of nest building and complet- 



ing the set was just two weeks in each 

 case, and the birds reared a brood in a 

 fourth nest which I did not discover till 

 the young were quite large. 



How is that for perseverance. Have 

 found nests of this species around the 

 same grove each year since, but no- 

 where else, so I concluded that this 

 pair of birds have made it their per- 

 manent home. 



On July 1st of this year I took a set 

 of four perfectly fresh eggs of the Black- 

 billed Cuckoo. Is this not rather un- 

 usual? 



There is one little point with regard 

 to listing eggs that I have never seen 

 mentioned, and yet I think it should be. 

 It is this: when you have several sets of 

 some species, each containing the same 

 number of eggs, say four, do not list 

 them, as nearly all collectors do, after 

 this manner, 1-4, 2-4, 8-4, etc., but if 

 the number of sets is three make them 

 at once 3-4, i. e., three sets of four eggs 

 each. If the collectors would all adopt 

 this plan, as many already have, it 

 would save some confusion and a great 

 deal of time and space. 



I have never tried the. water-blower 

 which is so popular at present, but 

 blow my eggs by a differeut method, 

 which has been very nearly described 

 before. I procure a common family sy- 

 ringe and one of Lattin's brass blow- 

 pipes. The blowpipe I fix stationary, 

 so it cannot move sidewise, up or down, 

 but can be turned. The end of the sy- 

 ringe I insert into the blowpipe and am 

 ready for work. The syringe, if a good 

 one, will, when the bulb is compressed, 

 readily force a current of air or water 

 through the point of the blowpipe, and 

 the apparatus can be used for either a 

 water or air blower. I prefer air. This 

 does away entirely with the use of the 

 human bellows, and makes the task of 

 preparing eggs, recently so formidable 

 as much a pleasure as a task. 



The fate of this article will decide 



