THE NIDIOLOGIST 



125 



peculiar swaying of the leaf at that particular 

 point caused the bird to change the position of 

 the nest, is undecided. 



Another peculiar nesting site was that of a 

 Costa's Hummingbird, which chose the horizon- 

 tal iron rod-brace of a large bridge on which to 

 build. Four different nests were started at as 

 many different places on the brace before a 

 place that suited was found, and it held but one 

 egg. A Hummingbird's nest on a piece of pro- 

 jecting bark on the side of a large tree and a 

 House Finch's nest in a hollowed-out cactus 

 leaf are mentioned. More should be written 

 concerning this interesting phase of Nidiology. 



A list of thirty-two Sparrows, all taken in 

 the vicinity of Pasadena, was reported at the 

 meeting of March 25, and sixteen of these have 

 been known to breed there. The Annex meets 

 at Mr. Arnold's residence in Pasadena, April 29. 



A Device for Blowing Eggs. 



NEVER having seen any description of the 

 apparatus used by me during the past 

 season for preparing eggs for the cabinet, 

 I am persuaded a brief article concerning it will 

 not be without interest to Oologists. The accom- 

 panying cut will explain its mode of operation. 



In operating on fresh eggs of size of common 

 hen or less, use a drill not larger than .04 in. 

 diameter ; with small eggs .02 in. drill answers 

 the purpose. Insert the point of tube / in the 

 egg after turning on the water, and the con- 

 tents of the egg pass rapidly over into the 

 flask, provided the tube be not of too small 

 caliber. In practice it is well to have a num- 

 ber of these tubes of different diameters. 



The tubing used to make tube / should have 

 very thin walls, that the internal diameter of 

 the attenuated point may be relatively large. 

 It would appear that there is great danger of 

 collapse if the suction tube nearly fills the 

 aperture in the shell of the egg, but with fresh 

 eggs I have never known it to occur. With 

 eggs in an advanced state of incubation, how- 

 ever, care must be taken to allow air to enter 

 freely around the tube. 



I have found little difficulty in removing 

 fully formed embryos from eggs as large as the 

 Robin's, using an .08 in. drill and a suction 

 tube of .06 in. external diameter. The embryo 

 was allowed to decay as suggested by Major 

 Bendire, when, after about a week, it could 

 nearly all be drawn through the tube. A few 

 pieces of bone, the largest being the tip of the 

 upper mandible, were withdrawn with the for- 

 ceps. The shells are readily washed clean 

 after removing the contents by submerging in 

 water and allowing the pump to act until the 



wash water comes out clear from the shell. In 

 case of eggs which are injured by water this 

 plan will of course not answer. 



The filtering flask used should be of strong 

 glass, as otherwise the atmospheric pressure 

 outside might cause its collapse, which may be 

 nearly as disastrous as an explosion. 



A 



Make connection between aspirator and water main at A. Pro- 

 vide means for carrying away waste water. 



The water in passing through aspirator rarifies the air in K. 



A, B, D, Chapman aspirator. 



E, H, Pieces of rubber tubing. 



G, F, Pieces of bent glass tubing. 



J, Rubber stopper, doubly perforated. 



K, Conical filtering flask capable of withstanding atmospheric 

 pressure. 



I, Glass tube drawn to small caliber at one end. 



The rubber tubing should be of the kind 

 known as pressure tubing. 



All joints should be made tight to prevent 

 the leakage of air and consequent lowering of 

 the efficiency of the aspirator. 



The different parts of this apparatus may be 

 obtained from any dealer in chemical supplies, 

 the most expensive item — the Chapman aspi- 

 rator — costing about a dollar and a half. 



When the water tap is provided with a screw 

 thread, as is sometimes the case, the aspirator 

 may be obtained with a connection suitable for 

 attaching directly to the tap, which does away 

 with considerable trouble in attaching to a 

 water main. A water pressure of twenty-five 

 pounds is found to work Avell. Probably a 

 higher pressure would give still better results. 

 E. E. Brewstek, in The Auk. 



Iron Mountain, Mich. 



An excellent and timely article, entitled 

 '' More Hints," from the pen of J. H. Bowles, 

 was crowded out of this number and will ap- 

 pear in June. 



