17s 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



of the common Guillemot the number 

 you would ftnd worth keeping is only I 

 limited by your cabinet space. When 

 this plan is adopted the lower part of 

 the space for the eggs should be partly 

 tilled with cotton wadding. We prefer 

 either pink or white, both of which 

 can be purchased at a very small price, 

 white being about k 2d. or 3d. per sheet, j 

 and pink about 6d. No shade looks 

 so well as pink, as no eggs are of the 

 same colour, and it contrasts well 

 with all green tints. The wadding- 

 should be put into the spaces, so that 

 the smaller ones will not appear to be I 

 lower down in the divisions. The 

 names of the birds should be neatly j 

 gummed on to the edge of the par- I 

 titions, which, if deal, should be j 

 neatly covered with white paper. 



Some prefer to these fixed partitions, j 

 to gum their eggs on to pieces of stiff 

 card, which are then arranged in order 

 in the drawers, and fastened with 

 small pins. The names of the birds, 

 and any details concerning the eggs j 

 themselves, where obtained, &c, can 

 be written at the bottom of the card ; 

 and we have seen a collection arranged 

 ill this way that not only looked well, 

 but was exceedingly interesting to exa- 

 mine from the correctness of the notes. 

 Still, we always feel sorry to see eggs 

 gummed to the cards, because they 

 cannot be removed without injury if it 

 ia desired to change their position. 

 Some years ago we saw the collection 

 of the well-known African traveller 

 Canon Tristram. He was then ar- 

 ranging them on an entirely new 



method, which he thought would be 

 the best yet devised. He had a num- 

 ber of punches of various sizes, exactly 

 like those used for cutting gun 

 waddings, but oval shaped instead of 

 circular. With these lie* punched as 

 many holes in a piece of card as he de- 

 sired to mount specimens. The ends 

 of the card were then cut half through, 

 and bent down till they were at right 

 angles. A strip of paper was gummed 

 from one to the other to keep them in 

 their place, and each whs then com- 

 plete. Before the eggs were put on 

 the stand, a very thin sheet of cotton 

 wadding was carefully laid over it, so 

 that the eggs, in filling up the hole cut 

 for them, had this wadding to protect 

 them against the hard edge of the 

 cardboard. Those we saw finished 

 were rather large eggs, and were 

 mounted one or two on a stand, and 

 looked well. Smaller eggs he intended 

 arranging in larger numbers. The 

 method appeared to be rather trouble- 

 some, but he seemed to think its 

 advantages would compensate for the 

 trouble. They were as well shown as 

 when gummed on cards, were placed in 

 nice order and with perfect regularity, 

 and could not roll about as do loose 

 specimens ; the arrangement of tlie 

 stands was easily altered, and the} 7 did 

 not take up more room than they 

 would in an ordinary way, while by 

 varying the length left on for the 

 ends of the stand, the eggs were all 

 raised to the same level. No doubt 

 his set of punches would be rather 

 costly, but we think, with practice, the 



