COLLECTION OF NESTS ANB EGGS 53 



and rinsed, eggs should be gently wiped dry, and set hole downward on blotting-paper to 

 drain.i Broken eggs may be neatly mended, sometimes with a film of collodion, or a bit of 

 tissue paper and paste, or the edges may be simply stuck together with any adhesive substance. 

 Even when fragmentary a rare egg is worth preserving. Eggs should ordinarily be left empty ; 

 indeed, the only case in which any filling is admissible is that of a defective speeittien to which 

 some slight solidity can be imparted with cotton. It is unnecessary even to close up the hole. 

 It is best, on all accounts, to keep eggs in sets, a " set" being the natural clutch, or Whatever 

 less number was taken irom a nest. The most scrupulous attention must be paid to accurate, 

 complete, and permanent labelling. So important is this, that the undeniable defacing of a 

 specimen, by writing on it, is no offset to the advantages accruing from such fixity of record. 

 It is practically impossible to attach a label, as is done with a bit'd-tekin, and a loose label is 

 always in danger of being lost or displaced. Write on the shell, then, as many items as 

 possible ; if done neatly, on the side in which the hole was bored, at least one good " show side " 

 remains. An egg should always bear the same number as the parent^ in the collector's 

 record. In a general collection, where separate ornithological and oological registers are kept, 

 identification of egg with parent is nevertheless readily secured, by making one the numerator 

 the other the denominator of a fraction, to be siihply inverted in its respective application. 

 Thus, bird No. 456, and egg No. 133, are identified by making the former |-|f the latter ^f . 

 AU the eggs of a clutch should have the same number. If the shell be large enough, the name 

 of the species should be written on it ; if too small, it should be accompanied by a label, and 

 may have the name indicated by a number referring to a certain catalogue. According to my 

 " Check List," for example, "No. 1 " would indicate Turdus migraiorius. The date of collec- 

 tion is a highly desirable item; it may be abbreviated thus ; 3 ] 6 | 82 means Jane S, 1883. It 

 is well to have the egg authenticated by the collector's initials at least. Since " sets " of eggs 

 may be broken up for distributions to other cabinets, yet permanent indication of the size of 

 the clutch be wanted, it is well to have some method. A good one is to vmte the number of 

 the clutch on each egg composing it, giving each egg of the set, moreover, its individual 

 number. Supposing for example the clutch No. ^ contained five eggs ; one of them would 

 be ^ I 5 I 1 : the next JH | 5 | 2, and so on. But it should be remembered that all such 

 arbitrary memoranda must be systematic, and be accompanied by a key. Eggs may be kept 

 in cabinets of shallow drawers in little pasteboard trays, each holding a set, and containing <a 

 paper label on which various items that cannot be traced on the shell are written in full. 



■ SHttfiM-eing the Eggshell b^ore Blowing. — Fig. 8 " shows A piece of paper, a ntamber of which, when gammed 

 on tb an egg, one over the other, cmd l^t to dry, strehgthen the shell in such a manner that the instruments above 

 described can be introduced through the apei-tUre in the middle and worked to the best advantage, and thus a 

 fully formed embryo may be cut up, and the pieces extracted through a very moderatiely 

 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 papel:. Five or six is the least number that it is safe to use. Each piece should be 

 left to dry befoie the next is gummed on. The slits in the margin cause them to set 

 pfetty smoothly, v^hioh will be fouhd vei:y desirable; the aperture in the middle of each 

 may be cut out first, or the whole series of layers may be drilled through when the hole 

 is made in the egg. For convenience' sake, the papers may be prepared already gummed, 

 and moistened when put on (in the same wAy that adhesive postage labels are used). 

 Doubtless, patches of linen or tiotton cloth would answer equally well. When the opera- 

 tion is over, a slight application of water (espeeiall^ if warm) through the syringe will j<j[q_ 8.-^Nat. size, 

 loosen them so that they can be easily removed, and they can be separated from one 



another, ahd dried to serve another time. The sifee represented in the sketch is that suitable for an egg of mod- 

 eratS dimension, such as that of a feommon fowl. The most effectual w^ of adopting this method of emptying 

 eggs is by using very many layers <f thin paper and plmty qf thnek gim, but this is, of course, the most tedious. 

 Nevertheless, it is qnlte worth the trouble in the case of really rare specimens, and they will be none the worse for 

 operating updh f*6m the delay of a few days eaused by waiting for the gum to dry and harden. The naturalist 

 to Whom this method fiWt occurred has found it answer remarkably well in every case that it has been used, from 

 the egg 6f ah 6*gle to that of a humming-bird, and among English oologists it has been generally adopted." 

 ^A. Newton, in Smiths. Misc. Coll. 139, 1860.) 



