ON PRESERVING BIRDS FOR CABINETS OF

NATURAL HISTORY.

Faults in bird-stuffing. - Tools required.-Knowledge of anatomy.— Attitudes of birds. -Flow of the plumage.-How to skin a bird.Inserting cotton.-Killing wounded birds.-Stuffing a hawk.-The first incision. The skin to be pushed, not pulled.-Arrangement of wings.-Modelling the body.-Spreading the tail.-Constant attention required.-Strength and elasticity.-Value of corrosive sublimate.Experience and patience.

ING BIRDS.

WERE as much attention to birds as the sculp- PRESERVyou to pay tor does to the human frame, you would immediately see, on entering a museum, that the specimens are not well done.

This remark will not be thought severe when you reflect that that which once was a bird has probably been stretched, stuffed, stiffened, and wired by the hand of a common clown. Consider likewise how the plumage must have been disordered by too much stretching or drying, and perhaps sullied, or at least deranged, by the pressure of a coarse and heavy hand-plumage which, ere life had fled from within it, was accustomed to be touched by nothing rougher than the dew of heaven, and the pure and gentle breath of air.

In dissecting, three things are necessary to ensure Dissecting. success, viz., a penknife, a hand not coarse or clumsy, and practice. The first will furnish you with the means;

ING BIRDS.

PRESERV- the second will enable you to dissect; and the third cause you to dissect well. These may be called the mere mechanical requisites.

Stuffing.

of Ornitho

In stuffing, you require cotton, a needle and thread, a little stick the size of a common knitting-needle, glass eyes, a solution of corrosive sublimate, and any kind of a common temporary box to hold the specimen. These also may go under the same denomination as the former. But if you wish to excel in the art, if you wish to be in ornithology what Angelo was in sculpture, you must apply to profound study and your own genius to assist you. And these may be called the scientific requisites.

Requisite You must have a complete knowledge of ornithological to have a thorough anatomy. You must pay close attention to the form and knowledge attitude of the bird, and know exactly the proportion logical each curve, or extension, or contraction, or expansion of Anatomy. any particular part bears to the rest of the body. In a word, you must possess Promethean boldness, and bring down fire and animation, as it were, into your preserved specimen.

Examine

Repair to the haunts of birds on plains and mountains, the ecoforests, swamps, and lakes, and give up your time to nomy of the orders examine the economy of the different orders of birds. of birds. Then you will place your eagle in attitude commanding, the same as Nelson stood in, in the day of battle, on the Victory's quarter-deck. Your pie will seem crafty, and just ready to take flight, as though fearful of being surprised in some mischievous plunder. Your sparrow will retain its wonted pertness by means of placing his tail a little elevated, and giving a moderate arch to the neck. Your vulture will show his sluggish habits by having his body nearly parallel to the earth, his wings somewhat drooping, and their extremities under the tail instead of above it-expressive of ignoble indolence.

ING BIRDS.

Your dove will be in artless, fearless innocence, looking PRESERV mildly at you, with its neck, not too much stretched, as if uneasy in its situation, or drawn too close into the shoulders, like one wishing to avoid a discovery; but in moderate, perpendicular length, supporting the head horizontally, which will set off the breast to the best advantage. And the breast ought to be conspicuous, and have this attention paid to it; for when a young lady is sweet and gentle in her manners, kind and affable to those around. her; when her eyes stand in tears of pity for the woes of others, and she puts a small portion of what Providence has blessed her with into the hand of imploring poverty and hunger then we say she has the breast of a turtle-dove.

You will observe how beautifully the feathers of a bird are arranged, one falling over the other in nicest order; and that, where this charming harmony is interrupted, the defect, though not noticed by an ordinary spectator, will appear immediately to the eye of a naturalist. Thus, a bird not wounded and in perfect feather must be procured if possible, for the loss of feathers can seldom be made good; and where the deficiency is great, all the skill of the artist will avail him little in his attempt to conceal the defect, because, in order to hide it, he must contract the skin, bring down the upper feathers, and shove in the lower ones, which would throw all the surrounding parts into contortion.

You will also observe that the whole of the skin does not produce feathers, and that it is very tender where the feathers do not grow. The bare parts are admirably formed for expansion about the throat and stomach, and they fit into the different cavities of the body at the wings, shoulders, rump, and thighs with wonderful exactness; so that in stuffing the bird, if you make an even rotund surface of the skin where these cavities existed, in lieu of

The

feathers.

Ꮓ

PRESERV- reforming them, all symmetry, order, and proportion are ING BIRDS. lost for ever.

General directions.

You must lay it down as an absolute rule that the bird is to be entirely skinned, otherwise you can never succeed in forming a true and pleasing specimen.

You will allow this to be just, after reflecting a moment on the nature of the fleshy parts and tendons, which are often left in 1st, they require to be well seasoned with aromatic spices; 2dly, they must be put into an oven to dry; 3dly, the heat of the fire and the natural tendency all cured flesh has to shrink and become hard renders the specimen withered, distorted, and too small; 4thly, the inside then becomes like a ham or any other dried meat. Ere long the insects claim it as their own; the feathers begin to drop off, and you have the hideous spectacle of death in ragged plumage.

Wire is of no manner of use, but, on the contrary, a great nuisance; for where it is introduced, a disagreeable stiffness and derangement of symmetry follow.

The head and neck can be placed in any attitude, the body supported, the wings closed, extended or elevated, the tail depressed, raised or expanded, the thighs set horizontal or oblique, without any aid from wire. Cotton will effect all this.

A very small proportion of the skull bone, say, from the forepart of the eyes to the bill, is to be left in; though even this is not absolutely necessary. Part of the wingbones, the jaw-bones, and half of the thigh-bones, remain. Everything else, flesh, fat, eyes, bones, brains, and tendons, are all to be taken

away.

While dissecting, it will be of use to keep in mind,— That, in taking off the skin from the body, by means of your fingers and a little knife, you must try to shove it, in lieu of pulling it, lest you stretch it.

That, you must press as lightly as possible on the bird, PRESERVand every now and then take a view of it, to see that the ING BIRDS. feathers, &c., are all right.

That, when you come to the head, you must take care that the body of the skin rests on your knee; for if you allow it to dangle from your hand, its own weight will stretch it too much.

That, throughout the whole operation, as fast as you detach the skin from the body, you must put cotton immediately betwixt the body and it; and this will effectually prevent any fat, blood, or moisture from coming in contact with the plumage. Here it may be observed that, on the belly you find an inner skin, which keeps the bowels in their place. By a nice operation with the knife, you can cut through the outer skin, and leave the inner skin whole. Attention to this will render your work very clean; so that, with a little care in other parts, you may skin a bird without even soiling your finger ends.

As you can seldom get a bird without shooting it, a line or two on this head will be necessary. If the bird be still alive, press it hard with your finger and thumb, just behind the wings, and it will soon expire. Carry it by the legs, and then, the body being reversed, the blood cannot escape down the plumage through the shot-holes. As blood will often have issued out before you have laid hold of the bird, find out the shot-holes, by dividing the feathers with your fingers, and blowing on them, and then, with your penknife, or the leaf of a tree, carefully remove the clotted blood, and put a little cotton on the hole. If, after all, the plumage has not escaped the marks of blood; or if it has imbibed slime from the ground, wash the part in water, without soap, and keep gently agitating the feathers, with your fingers, till they are quite dry. Were you to wash them, and leave them to dry by