THE BAY STATE OOLOGIST. 



21 



the cardboard bottom, all round, and you have what appears to be a shallow box 

 with a perforated bottom. The eggs are placed in this form, holes downward ; and 

 as the hole in the egg is thus placed in the hole that has been punched in the 

 cardboard, a free circulation of air is insured, all around and in the egg, drying 

 it in the shortest time; and there will be no cotton, sand or anything else, sticking 

 around the edges of the box. 



Having indicated the tools necessary, a few hints about the field-work part of 

 collecting comes next ; and here I wish to warn the young collector against being 

 of a too greedy disposition and "bagging" everything he finds. Of many species 

 he will find hundreds of eggs (that is in a region where bird life is plenty) and in 

 cases of this kind he can take for his own collection as many eggs as desirable to 

 show the variations, and a few tor exchange. He can always have his choice here 

 and take only fresh eggs, letting the others alone. I condemn the practice of tak- 

 ing only half the eggs in a nest and leaving the rest. Nine times out of ten, the 

 bird will desert the nest. Better take all out of one nest and pass the next one by. 

 The bird that has been despoiled of its eggs will go elsewhere and build again. 



Identification and authentication are the cardinal requisites in collecting. A 

 bird or a shell bears its own label; but the science of Oology has not advanced to 

 that stage where a species can be determined from the egg, alone. Never take an 

 egg until you are sure what species it belongs to. An unidentified egg is worse 

 than worthless, it is of no use to the owner, and it is that much bird-life needless- 

 ly destroyed. If you find a nest "and don't know the bird, secure it, either by 

 snaring or shooting and make a skin of it. Place the same number on the eggs 

 and bird and they can then be identified at any time. Directions for making a 

 bird-skin will be given further on. 



Supposing the collector starting out for a day's collecting; he will need a box 

 filled with cotton (a cigar box is excellent), a note-book and pencil (climbers such 

 as are used by "telegraph men" also come in handy). 



If the collector takes to heart what I wrote above, he will carefully identify each 

 set of eggs. Suppose the first set he takes is a set of four eggs of the Red-headed 

 Woodpecker; the bird seen; nest 20 feet up in an elm tree. If he knows the bird's 

 number, he would write in his note-book the following short particulars : 1 — 375 

 4 — 20 ft., — elm, and he would mark each egg of the set No. 1. The small end 01 

 the egg is preferably the place for these first numbers. The tenth set, he finds, 

 is a set of three eggs of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The nest, eight feet up in a 

 wild plum tree. Here his entries would read: 10 — 387 — 3 — 8 feet — wild plum. 

 (to be continued. ) 



