NOTES AND QUERIES. 189 



[Second-hand identifications are always unreliable. We were under the 

 impression that Mr. Warren had satisfied himself as to the identity of the 

 species. — Ed.] 



PRESERVATION OF ZOOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 



Hard-sat Eggs : a Suggestion. — As the nesting season is now at hand, 

 I should like to suggest a method of dealing with hard-sat eggs which I 

 have not yet seen mentioned in ■ The Zoologist.' Of course no one would 

 think of taking hard-sat eggs when fresh ones could be obtained, but some- 

 times we come across valuable eggs which one does not like to leave, even 

 if much incubated. Some collectors endeavour to extract the embryo with 

 fine hooks, with or without previously dismembering it with fine scissors 

 (embryotomy) ; others cut a door in the shell, which is replaced after 

 removal of the chick ; while others again insert chemicals into the shell 

 through the drill-hole. As is well known, skeletons of small mammals or 

 birds may readily be obtained by placing the body of the creature near an 

 ant's nest, when the bones will speedily be picked clean by the swarming 

 and industrious insects. In the same way they would probably devour the 

 contents of a hard-sat egg, as the foetal tissues, being only partially de- 

 veloped, would be more easily disintegrated than those of an adult animal; 

 and it would be well worth while, in the case of a hard-sat and valuable egg, 

 to drill a hole in the shell large enough to admit an ant, and, after cautiously 

 breaking up the contents a little with a pin, to place it on the ground close 

 to an ant's nest, where it could be left for a few days, if suitably protected 

 from dust and injury. A very delicate and thin-shelled egg might be 

 injured by the powerful mandibles of ground-loving beetles, such as those 

 of the Carabus and Staphylinus type, but this would be only a rare and 

 occasional accident. The embryo, however putrid, being enclosed in a 

 shell, would probably not tempt the efforts of the burying-beetles, such as 

 Necrophorus ruspator or N. vespillo ; and I trust that this method may be 

 of service in saving valuable eggs during the coming season. — Graham 

 Renshaw (Sale Bridge House, Sale, Manchester). 



