BULLETIN 39, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



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thoroughly fixed iu a fresh-laid egg. This applies especially to the eggs 

 of many game birds and hawks, as well as to others. The shells of 

 some of the water birds, as the Pelicans, Gannets, and Cormorants, 

 are covered with a more or less uneven deposit of lime. This should 

 not be scraped or scrubbed off. Especial care should be taken to 

 thoroughly clean all white eggs both inside and outside, particularly 

 those of Woodpeckers. 



Eggs should be blown or emptied through a single small hole neatly 

 drilled on one side, as shown in the figure on page 8. It is well to com- 

 mence making this hole with a needle and finishing it with an egg dr/11, 

 which is given a rotary motion between the thumb and forefinger. Jn 

 marked or spotted eggs the poorest or least marked side should always 

 be selected for this purpose. Great care should betaken to remove the 

 entire contents. 



A simple blowpipe and a few different sized drills, like those figured 

 below, which may be obtained at any natural-history dealer's establish- 

 ment, are all the implements required to blow an egg. 



Drills. 



Blowpipe. 



Embryo hook. 



Curved pointed scissors. 



Many collectors use very fine glass points attached to a rubber bulb, 

 others use an instrument manufactured by Mr. E. W. Ellsworth^ of East 



