Excerpt from The Ornithologists and Oologists Semi-Annual, 1889, Vol. 1
The curved blow pipe is the most convenient. Glass ones are not to be thought of, from their liability to break. I have used a curved brass blow-pipe, six inches in length, for several years and it is still as good as new. The original cost, was, I think, 20 cts. and I've prepared about 1500 eggs with it. Other articles that are needed are an embryo hook and a small pair of scissors. With such an outfit, anyone can prepare eggs (the tools necessary for preserving birds will be given further on.)
Various ways are recommended for draining or drying the eggs after blowing, such as laying them, hole downward, on a bed of sand, cotton batting, blotting paper, etc. I'll tell you of the "dryer" that I use and how to make it. Take a piece of card-board of suitable size, (mine is 12-18 inches) draw lines across, lengthwise, 1-2 an inch apart: now draw another set of lines, the same distance apart and at right angles to the first lines. Where the lines intersect punch holes with a .32 calibre wad-cutter. Mount this perforated card board on a wooden frame, stretching it tight, (a few strips of wood nailed to the frame under the card-board will keep it from sagging) tack sides to the frame, projecting about two inches above the card-board bottom, all round, and you have what appears to be a shallow box with a perforated bottom. The eggs are placed in this form, hole downward; and as the hole in the egg is thus placed in the hole that has been punched in the card-board, a free circulation of air is insured, all around and in the egg, drying it in the shortest time; and there will be no cotton, sand or anything else, sticking around the edges of the hole.
Having indicated the tools necessary, a few hints about the fieldwork part of collecting comes next; and here I wish to warn the young collector against being of a too greedy disposition and "bagging" everything he finds. Of many species he will find hundreds of eggs, (that is in a region where bird-life is plenty) and in cases of this kind he can take for his own collection as many eggs as desirable to show the variations, and a few for exchange. He can always have his choice here and take only fresh eggs, letting the others alone. I condemn the practice of taking only half the eggs in a nest and leaving the rest. Nine times out of ten the bird will desert the nest. Better take all out of one nest and pass the next one. The bird that has been despoiled of its eggs will go elsewhere and build again.
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