CHAPTEK VI. 



COLLECTING SKINS OF SMALL BIBDS. 



THE lives of hundreds of thousands of wild birds have been 

 sacrificed to no purpose by persons claiming 1 to be ornithologi- 

 cal collectors, and yet who had not the knowledge, skill, or in- 

 dustry to make up good bird skins. There are now in this 

 country numerous large collections of bird skins that are a sight 

 to behold. The ability to make up fine, clean, shapely, well-pre- 

 served skins, and make them rapidly also, is a prime requisite 

 in anyone who aspires to be sent off to interesting " foreign 

 parts " to shoot, collect, and see the world at the expense of 

 someone else. An aspiring young friend of the writer, whose 

 soul yearned to travel and " collect," missed a fine opportunity 

 to make a very interesting voyage on the Albatross, for the sole 

 reason that with all his yearning he could not make good bird 

 skins, and it served him right for his lack of enterprise. 



Let me tell you that, while twenty years ago any sort of a 

 bird skin was acceptable to a museum, now such specimens must 

 be first class in order to be well received. Fine skins are the 

 rule now with curators and professional ornithologists, and poor 

 ones the exception. Although the work itself is simple enough, 

 it is no child's play to perform it successfully. 



It is best for the beginner to learn first how to skin small 

 birds, and make up their skins, and when he has mastered these 

 details he is prepared to undertako the preparation of largo 

 specimens, and learn how to overcome the exceptional difficul- 

 ties they present. To this end the present chapter will be de- 

 voted to setting forth the leading principles involved, which 

 are most easily learned from small specimens. 



We will first undertake the work of skinning a small bird a 

 robin, thrush, or blackbird, whichever you happen to have. If 



