ic fjouiuj ftaturaiist: 



fit Penny Weekiy Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 77. 



APPvIL H.th, 1881. 



Vol. 2. 



ON ARRANGING BIRD EGGS 

 IN THE CABINET. 



{N No. 3, vol. 1. we gave a low in- 

 structions on the best methods of 

 preparing Birds' Eggs for the Cabinet. 

 In concluding it we promised a paper 

 on another occasion, on the arrange- 

 ment of those fragile objects, but one 

 thiug or another has come in the way, 

 and it has been delayed till now. Per- 

 haps one reason why it has been put 

 off, has been that we are not well 

 satisfied with any method that we have 

 seen adopted.. Perhaps, however, this 

 paper will lead, as similar papers have 

 led before, to others penning their 

 ideas on the subject, and if our sugges- 

 tions are not satisfactory, better ones 

 may come from one or other of our 

 readers. The drawers of an Egg 

 Cabinet should be, and generally are, 

 made of different depths. Two inches 

 is abundantly deep enough for fill small 

 eggs, while four, or even six inches, is 

 not too deep for the larger eggs. They 

 should be covered with glass, fitted in 

 a frame, such as are used for insect 

 drawers, so as to exclude dust. In 

 museums, where eggs are exposed to 



the public, they very soon lose their 

 colour ; and we have seen covers both 

 of brown paper and of green glazed 

 calico over them, which the visitor 

 needed to raise before the contents of 

 the cases could be seen, and which fell 

 back of themselves so as to cover the glass. 

 This, of course is a great improvement 

 over the exposed case, but where the 

 collector has a cabinet for his eggs, the 

 more complete darkness in which the 

 drawers will be kept will be much 

 better. 



In arranging the eggs iu the drawers, 

 neatly made divisions of either deal or 

 mahogany, or even of cardboard, are 

 often used. The spaces made by those 

 partitions are best all of one size 

 in one drawer, but must vary in different 

 drawers according to the size of the 

 eggs, and the variable nature of their 

 markings. Of many birds you may 

 get one or two eggs that are character- 

 istic of the whole, and where that is so, 

 there is no advantage in taking more 



than this 



The 



of the Hedge 



Sparrow, for instance, is so constant 

 in its colour and want of marking that 

 two or three specimens are as good as 

 a hundred ; but with an egg like that 



