10 INTRODUCTION. 



the surface. A thin-shelled egg may be held to the light to 

 insure emptiness. 



§ J. Eggs may be cleaned with a soft, wet rag, dipped in 

 tooth-powder, or by the careful use of an ink-eraser (with a 

 flat, pointed steel blade), though the latter may injure the 

 surface. Certain eggs (but none of those described in this 

 volume) are calcareous, and their chalky shells cannot be safely 

 cleaned. Others, moreover, have a certain " bloom," like that 

 of a grape, which can be washed off. 



To mend an egg, if broken into bits of manageable size, 

 take one a little smaller and of no value, wet it, or coat it 

 with a very delicate varnish, and place on it the bits of shell 

 in their proper positions, so that they shall fit together. For 

 large eggs, a mould of putty, if carefully shaped, may be used 

 instead. Cracks may be brushed with collodion. The common 

 method of gluing bits together with mucilage and thin paper 

 is often clumsy or dangerous, and, even if successful, generally 

 ruins the fair appearance of any specimen. 



§ K. Promptly place your eggs, when blown, in your 

 cabinet, and have some means of identifying them afterwards. 

 Labels should be altogether avoided, as they greatly mar the 

 beauty of a collection, and any writing on the shell should be 

 condensed and placed on the under side, where it wiU be in- 

 conspicuous (or near the " drill-hole," if there be one). There 

 are various methods of marking, but whichever be followed 

 should be uniformly observed. Perhaps the best is to write ^^ 

 on each egg a number of the Smithsonian or Dr. Coues's Cheek- 

 list* (followed by S. or C, to indicate which) ; for instance, on 

 a Wood Thrush's egg either 148 S. or 3 C. To this may 



11 Purple ink will be found to flow present day number their eggs with 

 more freely than ordinary black ink. pencil, and many will not accept in ex- 

 Figures should be fine and made with change specimens which bear ink 

 care. They may be written on a bit of marks. — W. B. 



paper gummed over the " drill-hole," * The Check-List of North American 

 though it is better to write on the sheU Birds, published by the American 

 itself, unless too delicate, or unless the Ornithologists' Union, is now very gen- 

 egg be very smaU." erally taken for this purpose. — W. B. 



" Nearly all the collectors of the 



