COLLECTING SKINS OF LARGE BIRDS. C'J 



Like another Lochinvar, I " came late " for that oiler. I had 

 seen one bird skinned and mounted, and I knew I could do one 

 like it. That was an old, rust}', second-hand crow. I petitioned 

 to have a chance to " stuff birds," but it fell on deaf ears. I 

 even went so far as to mount a squirrel, to show what I could 

 do, and although it was a very fair specimen for that benighted 

 period, it failed to win. 



But one day some good genius sent a dead bird to the presi- 

 dent, for the museum, and with it heaven sent my opportunity. 

 Professor Bessey sent for me and said, " Now, young man, we 

 are going to see how much you know about stuffing birds. 

 We've got a specimen for you to try your hand on, and if you 

 succeed in mounting it decently, you may possibly get an op- 

 portunity to work in the museum." I replied, " Show me the 

 victim." 



Ho took me to his room, raid there, spread out upon the cur- 

 pet, lay an enormous white pelican. His body was like a great 

 downy pillow, his bill was as long as a fence-rail, with a great 

 horny knot atop of it, and his huge j'cllow pouch would have 

 held a whole school of mackerel, teachers and all. And what 

 wings ! They were full-grown angel's size, and as white and 

 spotless as Gabriel's own. It seemed like sacrilege to touch 

 them. And such feet ! Enough of them would have covered the 

 college campus. I had never before seen such a bird, even in 

 my dreams. He really was larger than the maximum measure- 

 ments given by Audubon for that species. Professor Bessey in- 

 formed me that his name was Pelicanus erythrorliynchos. It 

 was not quite so long as his bill, nor so rough, but it was pretty 

 nearly. 



With a pocket-knife, an old misfit pair of pliers, and a smooth, 

 flat piece of steel that had once been a file, I skinned and 

 mounted that bird, " in the highest style of the art," as the taxi- 

 dermic business card always hath it. I have also faint recollec- 

 tions of a great wad of oakum made into a body, a thimbleful 

 of arsenic, and a pair of eyes merely this and nothing more. 

 As I hope to live, I believe I could feed a live pelican as mud) 

 arsenic as I put upon that great skin without even giving bin; 

 the stomach-ache ; but the bugs seemed to know that was my 

 first effort, and they have never touched him. I mounted him as 



