itself tightly fixed. Another
strap passes through the loop at the top where marked A, and is
strapped round the calf of the leg, keeping all below the knee rigid
and secure. When climbing, the hands clasp the tree in the usual
manner, and the side of the foot is struck smartly against the trunk,
to cause the claw to penetrate. The climber now rests on this, and
strikes the claw of the other iron in, on the other side, higher up,
and so on alternately.

Fig. 37--Climbing iron

Eggs, when procured, must have their contents removed. To do this they
must first be drilled with little steel instruments called egg-drills,
which are made of various degrees of fineness according to the size of
the egg to be operated upon. Drills are to be procured from the
various dealers, but can be made from steel wire softened in the fire
and filed to a sharp three-cornered point--afterwards tempered to
hardness--for the smaller eggs, or filed up for the larger eggs to the
pattern of a "countersink" used for wood; indeed, the smallest-sized
"countersink" made--to be procured at any ironmonger's--will do very
well for eggs the size of a hen's. Capital egg-drills are to be made
from "pinion wire" used by watchmakers. Simply file to a point, and
"relieve" with a small "three-square" file the channels of the wire,
giving them a cutting edge up to their point. With such a drill as
this--cost, about 2d.--I have blown, without any breakage, eggs
varying in size, from swallows' to hens'. A drill costing 2s. 6d,
which was the price I paid for my first--purchased from a
surgical-instrument maker in London, since deceased--could not do the
work better.

To use these drills, rotate the point by "twiddling" the drill between
the finger and thumb, making only one hole, and that in the centre of
the egg. When a nicely-rounded hole is cut, the egg must be emptied by
means of an "egg-blower," or blowpipe; the point being introduced into
the hole, the contents are blown out or sucked up into the bulb,
which, when full, is emptied out at the other end. It sometimes
happens that the egg is "hard set." The embryo must, in that case, be
cut out with small curved scissors specially made. If hard set,
putrid, or stale, an egg often bursts when touched. To obviate this,
drill and blow it under water.

Young birds can often be extracted, with a little care, uninjured from
their egg-shells, and yet--as happened to me lately in the instance of
a hawk--the shell