28 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY part i 



both hands to make the cornucopia, let the specimen dangle by the 

 toes from your teeth while you are so employed. In catching at a 

 wounded bird, aim to cover it entirely with your hand ; but what- 

 ever yoTi do, never seize it by the tail, which then will often be 

 left in your hands for your pains. Never grasp wing-tips or tail- 

 feathers ; these large flat quills would get a peculiar crimping all 

 along the webs, very difficult to efface. Finally, I would add, there 

 is a certain knack or art in manipulating, either of a dead bird or 

 a birdskin, by which you may handle it with seeming carelessness 

 and perfect impunity ; whilst the most gingerly fingering of an 

 inexperienced person will leave its rude trace. You will naturally 

 acquire the correct touch ; but it can be neither taught nor described. 

 While the ordinary run of land-birds will be brought home in good 

 order by the foregoing method, some require special precautions. 

 I refer to sea-birds, such as gulls, terns, petrels, etc., shot from a 

 boat. In the first place, the plumage of most of them is, in part 

 at least, white and of exquisite purity. Then, fish-eating birds 

 usually vomit and purge when shot. They are necessarily fished 

 all dripping from the water. They are too large for pocketing. 

 If you put them on the thwarts or elsewhere about the boat, they 

 usually fall off, or are knocked off, into the bilge water ; if you stow 

 them in the cubby-hole, they will assuredly soil by mutual pressure, 

 or by rolling about. It will repay you to pick them from the 

 water by the bill, and shake off all the water you can ; hold them 

 up, or let some one do it, till they are tolerably dry ; plug the 

 mouth, nostrils, and vent, if not also shot-holes; wrap each one 

 separately in a cloth (not paper) or a mass of tow, and pack steadily 

 in a covered box or basket taken on board fi^r this j^urpose. With 

 such precautions as these, birds most liable to be soiled reach the 

 skinning-taljle in perfect order ; and your care will afterward trans- 

 form them into specimens without spot or blemish. 



§ 4.— HYGIENE OF COLLECTORSHIP 



It is unnecessary to speak of the Healthfulness of a pursuit 

 that, like the collector's occupation, demands regular bodily exercise, 

 and at the same time stimulates the mind by supplying an object, 

 thus calling the whole system into exhilarating action. Yet collect- 

 ing has its perils, not to be overlooked if we would adequately 

 guard against them, as fortunately we may, in most cases, by simple 

 precautions. The dangers of taxidermy itself are elsewhere noticed ; 

 but, besides these, the collector is exposed to vicissitudes of the 

 weather, may endure great fatigue, may breathe miasm, and may 

 be mechanically injured. 



