42 
THE NATURALISTS' JOURNAL, 
The collector should now turn his attention to heaths, 
commons and all places thickly covered with small brushes, 
brambles, furze and tangled vegetation. After the middle of 
June there are no nests for which especial search can be made, 
although it is surprising what a number of egg's the diligent 
collector comes across: among these may be mentioned the 
Whitethroat, Sedge-Warbler, Robin, and Yellow Bunting. 
Ring Doves may often be found with eggs in August. 
The foregoing remarks constitute a general outline for the 
collecting of eggs, but for nests a small bag should be taken ; 
beyond this nothing else is required for the latter. We no^v 
come to 
Blowing and Preserving Eggs, 
For this we require blowpipes and drills of various sizes 
for the different kinds of eggs. A good many egg-collec¬ 
tors use brass blowpipes, but for myself I always use a glass 
blowpipe, excepting for large eggs, such as gulls, &c. With 
glass blowpipes, unless great care is taken it is quite possible to 
break off the points, and also with them to break the egg itself; 
but, on the other hand, one is able to extract the contents of 
an egg from a hole so minute as to be almost invisible, especially 
if the egg is a little suotted and coloured. 
Take the egg to be blown in the left hand, hold it over a 
basin/?/// of water, and make a small hole on one side (generally 
the least spotted) with a fine needle. Then insert the point of 
a drill of suitable size into the Hole, and with the least possible 
pressure commence to rapidly turn or “ twiddle ’’ the drill 
between the finger and thumb ; a neat round hole will be 
quickly formed. Now, with a fine-pointed knife remove the 
skin or membrane from the edge of the hole; this allows the 
contents to be more easily expelled. Still hold the egg over 
the water, and take a blowpipe and place it just at the edge of 
the hole and blow. If the egg is fresh the contents will flow 
freely—should it not do so a little water may be blown into the 
egg and the egg well shaken, this will usually have the desired 
effect. Having blown the original contents of the egg out, 
now proceed to well wash the inside by filling with clean water, 
shaking, and re- blowing until the water comes out as clean as 
it went in. Quite a number of collectors would then wash out 
the shell with corrosive sublimate, but after a couple of seasons 
use I found the benefit of this solution to be more imaginary 
o 
than real. I remember trying it on a set of Missel Thrush’s 
eggs; it did certainly preserve their greenish hue for a short 
time, but after exposing them to the light two or three times 
they faded more quickly than those which were not treated to 
a. dose of the sublimate. Don’t forget to place the egg-shell to 
