80 
HINTS ON CAGE-BIRDS. 
But tho most approved plan for arranging eggs in scientific 
collections is, to use shallow glass-topped boxes of tolerably uniform 
height, and put layers of cotton wool regulated in numbers by the size 
of the eggs over the bottom of the interior. The eggs aro then care- 
fully arranged in rows upon the wool and the lid shut so that it 
just touches the eggs and keeps them in their places, the labels are 
affixed outside the glass as in the other method. hen a collector 
has many varieties of the same kind of egg, this plan is an admirable 
one, each box doing duty for one species of bird, and being handy 
for examination when one bird only is being studied. 
For arranging nests I have seen no plan so good as my own — 
deep glass- topped boxes of various sizes, but made in multiples so 
as to be interchangeable, are arranged in glass-topped cabinet 
drawei's. The bottom of a box, when necessary, is filled with 
crumpled paper (more or less, according to the depth of the 
specimen), so that the nest is brought near to the lid. Bound the 
outside of the nest above the paper I place white wadding : among 
the crumpled paper a piece of stick-naphthaline (albo-carbon) ; in 
the centre of the nest below the eggs I drop a little carbolic acid, 
the lid is shut down, and upon it are fixed two labels bearing the 
name of the bird and the surroundings in which the nest was found. 
“ The Feathered World,” 9 Arundel Street, Strand, London, W.G. 
c. X. Vf. 
