Mar., 1908 SOME HINTS ON PREPARATION OF AN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION 



89 



label to fit on a corner of the tray with ears or laps to paste on the sides of the tray. 

 The accompanying: sketch and photos will show how well this overcame all objec- 

 tions. There is sufficient room for all necessary information on the label, it is easy 

 to make, is permanent when once pasted in place, and most important of all does 

 not interfere with the eggs is any way, and does not detract from the general ap- 

 pearance of the display. I have given these labels a thoro trial and they seem to 

 fill the bill perfectly. F'or use with the oblong trays a label pasted across the front 

 or back of the tray, leaving the exposed portion of the tray square, has proven the 

 most satisfactory; but where it is necessary to conserve space this label is practi- 

 cally useless, as it takes up so much room. 



Probably every one who has a collection has the eggs arranged to conform to 

 the A. O. U. nomenclature, which is without question the best plan of arrange- 

 ment. It is also very advantageous to arrange the eggs so that the families or 

 genera may be separated from each other. lyittle strips of wood about a quarter of 

 an inch wide and the same hight as the tray, placed between the trays of different 

 genera, accomplish this neatly and easily and thus show at a glance the different 

 types of coloration in the family or 

 genus. These strips can only be used 

 where the traj'^s do not exactly fit the 

 drawer, but as it is very seldom that a 

 drawer is found that will hold a cer- 

 tain number of trays without any 

 waste space this difficulty is of very 

 little moment. On these strips may 



CORNER OK A CABINET DRAWER SHOWING HOW 



CONSPICUOUS THE trianguIvAr Isabels are 



be pasted the family and generic 

 names if desired. 



If one wishes to have drawers fit 

 the trays exactly, for trays of the size 

 mentioned above, a drawer 24 inches 

 square inside is the most convenient 

 size, as 24 is exactly divisible by 3, 4, 

 6 and 8. 



Without any question the data ac 

 companying any collection of eggs is 

 the most important feature of the collection and there are many methods of housing 

 the data slips. The old-fashioned way was simply to lay the slips loosely in the 

 drawer with the eggs, which is not only dangerous to the eggs, but also leaves 

 many opportunities to lose the data, without which the sets are useless. A book 

 composed of large envelopes into which the data may be slipped works fairly well, 

 but has many disadvantages. The best idea I have seen in this line is one wliich 

 originated with the well known oologist, Fred M. Dille, and which covers every 

 requirement fully. It is no less than a modification of the vertical card system, in 

 which a large durable envelope with a data blank printed upon it is used instead of 

 the cards. The salient points of each data are written on the envelope, the data 

 enclosed in the envelope and then filed in vertical card files according to the 

 A. O. U. number. The advantages of this system are many: by repeated handling 

 the original data becomes soiled and often mutilated (especially is this true in pub- 

 lic collections) while the envelopes if made of durable manila paper will stand a 

 great deal of handling without injury, and even if they are worn out a new one 

 may be copied from the original without injury to the set represented. Again, as 

 nearly every collector has a different sized data blank it would be practically im- 



