Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/217

Rh [Second-hand identifications are always unreliable. We were under the impression that Mr. Warren had satisfied himself as to the identity of the species.—]

Hard-sat Eggs: a Suggestion.—As the nesting season is now at hand, I should like to suggest a method of dealing with hard-sat eggs which I have not yet seen mentioned in 'The Zoologist.' Of course no one would think of taking hard-sat eggs when fresh ones could be obtained, but sometimes we come across valuable eggs which one does not like to leave, even if much incubated. Some collectors endeavour to extract the embryo with fine hooks, with or without previously dismembering it with fine scissors (embryotomy); others cut a door in the shell, which is replaced after removal of the chick; while others again insert chemicals into the shell through the drill-hole. As is well known, skeletons of small mammals or birds may readily be obtained by placing the body of the creature near an ant's nest, when the bones will speedily be picked clean by the swarming and industrious insects. In the same way they would probably devour the contents of a hard-sat egg, as the fœtal tissues, being only partially developed, would be more easily disintegrated than those of an adult animal; and it would be well worth while, in the case of a hard-sat and valuable egg, to drill a hole in the shell large enough to admit an ant, and, after cautiously breaking up the contents a little with a pin, to place it on the ground close to an ant's nest, where it could be left for a few days, if suitably protected from dust and injury. A very delicate and thin-shelled egg might be injured by the powerful mandibles of ground-loving beetles, such as those of the Carabus and Staphylinus type, but this would be only a rare and occasional accident. The embryo, however putrid, being enclosed in a shell, would probably not tempt the efforts of the burying-beetles, such as Necrophorus ruspator or N. vespillo; and I trust that this method may be of service in saving valuable eggs during the coming season.— (Sale Bridge House, Sale, Manchester).