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basin provided for their use. The summer duck of North. 
America, almost as brilliant as the mandarin duck, it would 
also be desirable to introduce. 
A very interesting method has been given in the proceedings 
of the Zoological Society of 1859, of preserving the eggs of birds 
for a sufficiently long period to allow of their being brought 
from distant places and afterwards hatched; and Mr. Bartlett, 
now superintendent of the gardens, says he was successful in 
hatching and rearing the young from some eggs kept three 
months, and he had no doubt that, under favourable circum¬ 
stances, they may be kept for a longer period. The following is 
the method: — The eggs must be newly laid, or nearly so, and 
preserved in the following manner: — “Obtain the gut of any 
animal, whose intestine is large enough to admit the egg, and, 
having carefully cleaned the gut and rendered it free from fat, 
dry it as much as possible in powdered chalk or other earthy 
matter. Pass the egg into the gut, tying it close to the shell at 
both ends of the egg, and hang it up in a cool, dry place, until, 
it is quite dry. Two, three, or more eggs can be tied in the 
same gut, like a string of beads, or they can be tied separately. 
When thoroughly dry, they may be packed up in a box with 
oats, wheat, or any other dry grain or seeds, until the box is 
quite full. The object in having the box full is for the great 
convenience of turning the eggs. This is accomplished by 
turning the box bottom upwards, which should be done 
occasionally. Thus the whole of the eggs may be effectually 
turned with very little trouble. The eggs thus packed must be 
kept in a dry, cool place, and ought not to be taken out or 
unpacked before the liens are at hand for hatching them. Upon 
wishing to place them under a lien or otherwise, if the dry gut 
he cut with a sharp knife it will peel off without in any way 
injuring the shell of the egg.” This will be a valuable fact for 
the cause of acclimatisation. 
To show how easily large birds can be hatched under liens, the 
fine birds recently introduced by Mr. Petherick from the White 
Nile, the balceniceps rex, and which I saw alive in the Zoological 
Gardens last year, were hatched from eggs placed under a hen. 
This bird inhabits the White Nile, and Mr. Petherick read a 
paper before the society (during which I was present), in which 
he stated that the “ breeding time of the bakcniceps is in the rainy 
season, during the months of July and August, and the spot 
chosen is in the reeds or high grass immediately on the water’s 
edge, or on some small elevated and dry spots entirely surrounded 
