48 BIRDS-NESTING. 



ber or name. Whenever the abundance of the eggs 

 will authorize it, a large number with the young in 

 different degrees of development, even as many as 

 fifty of a kind, should be secured. The embryos in 

 this case need not be removed from the egg, which 

 should, however, be cracked at the blunt end to facili- 

 tate the entrance of the spirit." 



SAFETY CONTRIVANCES. 



A device given by Prof. Alfred Newton, in the 

 Smithsonian pamphlet from which I have quoted eo 

 freely, for use in the case of eggs containing embryos, 

 is superior to any similar invention known to me, and 

 has been generally adopted by Enghsh oologists. It 

 consists in using patches of tissue paper, a number 

 of which when gummed on to an egg, one over the 

 other, and left to dry, strengthen the shell in such 

 a manner that the instruments can be introduced 

 through the aperture in the middle and worked to 

 the best advantage ; thus a fully formed embryo may 

 be cut up, and the pieces extracted through a very 

 moderately sized hole. The number of thicknesses 

 required depends of course greatly upon the size of 

 the egg, the length of time it has been incubated, 

 and the stoutness of the shell and the paper ; five or 

 six is the least number that it is safe to use. Each 



