6 THE ORNITHOLOGISTS AND OOLOGISTS’ SEMI-ANNUAL. 
thing from your collection, to make comparisons between the eggs of 
different species, to note the variations in eggs of the same species, 
to study the birds themselves in field, forest and closet; then I say, 
go ahead, collect in sets and in series of sets, always have your ma- 
terial for study well authenticated and your collection will always pos- 
sess a scientific value as well as a pecuniary one, and you cannot be 
classed with the collectors who have been rather inelegantly termed 
“egg-hogs.”’ 
A few words about exchanging and I will close this article. Always 
use tin or wooden boxes in which to ship eggs. Cigar boxes need a 
cleat nailed inside on ‘the ends to keep the lid from being broken in. 
Large boxes will also need a partition put in to strengthen the box 
and obviate packing too many eggs together. Roll each egg seper- 
ately in cotton and pack them so they will not shake about in the box, 
but not tight enough to crush them when the lid is put down. Don’t 
put data or other writing in the box if it is to go by mail, and don’t 
nail the lid down, simply tie it with a string. Use some current 
price-list as a basis of exchange, and send the data to your corre- 
spondent in your letter of advice. Don’t wrap thread or tissue paper 
around eggs after you have wrapped them in cotton. Your corre- 
spondent will want to swear if you do, at least the writer hereof has 
been strongly tempted to do so, when unwinding yards of thread from 
the eggs, or undoing nicely done up packages, perhaps an invoice of 
an hundred eggs or more, and each one wrapped and tied like a 
package of dry goods or groceries. This practice of doing up eggs 
begets profanity and broken eggs. 
