Page:Acclimatisation; its eminent adaptation to Australia.djvu/33

31 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 circumstances, 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 hens are at hand for hatching them. Upon wishing to place them under a hen or otherwise, if the dry gut be 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 balœniceps 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 balœniceps 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