226 PEACTICAIi TAXIDEEMr. 



Eggs, wlien procured, must liave tlieir contents removed. To 

 do this they must first be drilled with little steel instruments 

 called egg-drills, which are made of various degrees of fineness 

 according to the size of the egg to be operated upon. Drills are 

 to be procured from the various dealers, but can be made from 

 steel wire softened in the fire and filed to a sharp three-cornered 

 iDoint — afterwards tempered to hardness — for the smaller eggs, 

 or filed up for the larger eggs to the pattern of a " countersink " 

 used for wood ; indeed, the smallest- sized " countersink " made — 

 to be procured at any ironmonger's — will do very well for eggs 

 the size of a hen's. Capital egg-drills are to be made from 

 "pinion wire" used by watchmakers. Simply file to a point, 

 and "relieve" with a small " three-square " file the channels of 

 the wire, giving them a cutting edge up to their point. With 

 such a drill as this — cost, about 2d. — I have blown, without 

 any breakage, eggs varying in size from swallows' to hens'. 

 A drill costing 2s. 6d., which was the price I paid for my first — 

 purchased from a surgical-instrument maker in London, since 

 deceased — could not do the work better. 



To use these drills, rotate the point by " twiddling " the drill 

 between the finger and thumb, making only one hole, and that 

 in the centre of the egg. When a nicely-rounded hole is cut, the 

 egg must be emptied by means of an " egg-blower," or blowpipe ; 

 the point being introduced into the hole, the contents are blown 

 out or sucked up into the bulb, which, when full, is emptied out 

 at the other end. It sometimes happens that the egg is "hard 

 set." The embryo must, in that case, be cut out with small 

 curved scissors specially made. If hard set, putrid, or stale, an 

 egg often bursts when touched. To obviate this, drill and blow 

 it under water. 



Toung birds can often be extracted, with a little care, un- 

 injured from their egg-shells, and yet — as happened to me lately 

 in the instance of a hawk — the shell may make a presentable 

 museum object, after such extraction. 



In ail cases eggs should be thoroughly rinsed out with a 

 solution of six grains of corrosive sublimate to an ounce of 

 rectified spirits of wine. This may be sucked up into the bulb 

 of the " egg-blower," and thence ejected into the egg, which is 

 to be rotated, and what solution is left may then be sucked back 



