Page:Condor10(6).djvu/14

 224 THE qONDR VoL. X Where the eggs are singles as in the Guillemots, Puffins, Razorbills, etc., etc., I have glass frames to the drawers, easily fitted and easily lifted; the eggs rest on sheets of cotton wool, in rows with thin divisions of wood separating the rows; in all the other cases each clutch is in a box to itself, glass topped and nearly air-tight, certainly dust proof; the dra. wers measure 16/ inches by 16/, so that I can get in 6x6 boxes of 2s inches, 5x5 boxes of 3 1-8 inches, 4x4 boxes of 4 inches, and 3x3 boxes of 5 inches diameter. All the boxes in the same drawer are of the same depth and come almost flush with the top of the drawer, but where large and small eggs come in the same family a little maneuvering is necessary which in a large collection is simple. I now come to the most important point of all, and that is the labeling; and it is here that I think Mr. Rockwell is at fault; in spite of what he says I feel sure that the triangular label must detract in some way from the appearance of the eggs. NEST AND EGGS OF COMMON TEAL, LONG-TAILED DUCK, HARLEQUIN DUCK AND POCHARD, SHOWING METHOD OF LABELING In the first place I always use round boxes, the name of the species pasted in the inside of the box, close up to the top edge and easily visible. Most of the data is written on the outside of the bottom of the box; for museums as well as private collections the average person does not want daia, and anyone sufficiently inter- ested will not mind the trouble of lifting the box (this you can easily do with the round box on account of the spaces between boxes, whereas in the square boxes fitting tight- ly in a drawer it is not so easy), and reading the par- ticulars; these particulars if at all lengthy, could not possi- bly be written on the triangm ar label. All my eggs are entered in my egg-book, each species under a number, and each set having a different set mark. Thus my number for Golden Eagle is 18. The first set would be 18 (and if e-2 both eggs would bear the same mark), the next set would be 18A, 18B, 18C, etc., etc., so that in a collection no two sets would ever bear the same marks. All details are entered in the egg-book and some are so lengthy that a card would be of no use, nor, for the matter of that, the bottom of the box either; every egg in my collection is numbered and that number appears on the bottom of the box with data as far as possible, and if any further particulars are wanted it is very easy to refer to the egg-book. It may be argued that handling the boxes would be detrimental to the con- tents, but the cotton wool is so arranged that the pressure of the glass lid is suffi- cient to keep the eggs from moving and in fact the glass just touches the eggs; I have found this method very useful in sending eggs for exhibition for lectures, etc.