DESTROYING BUGS CONCLUDING ITEMS. Ill 



weaker solution, one that leaves no white film, on drying, on a 

 black feather, may even be brushed over the whole plumage in 

 certain cases. But remember that this is a deadly poison and 

 must be used with care. Specimens may be buried in coarse 

 refuse tobacco leaves. One or another of these lines of de- 

 fence will commonly prove successful in destroying or driving 

 off mature insects, and even in stopping the ravages of the 

 larvjB ; but I doubt that any such means will kill the "nits." 

 With these we must deal otherwise ; and their destruction no 

 less than that of their parents is assured, if we subject them to a 

 high temperature. Baking birdskins is really the only process 

 that can make us feel perfectly safe. Infected specimens, along 

 with suspected ones, should be subjected to a dry heat, from 

 212° F-. up to any degree short of singeing the plumage. This 

 is readily done by putting the birds in a wooden tra}^ in any 

 oven — they must however be watched, unless you have special 

 contrivances for regulating the temperature. How long a time 

 is required is probably not ascertained with precision ; it will 

 be well to bake for several hours. When the beetles and larvae 

 are found completely parched, it may be confidently believed 

 that the unseen eggs are out of the hatching way forever. The 

 specimens may be immediately replaced in the cabinet, after 

 flipping or brushing off loosened feathers. 



§59. Two Items. One is, that arsenic helps to keep out 

 the bugs, besides preventing decay — a fact that should never 

 be forgotten, and that should give sharper edge to my advice 

 respecting lavish use of the substance at the outset. If it be 

 true, as some state, that bugs can eat arsenic without dying, it 

 is also true, that they do not relish it ; and in entering a case 

 of skins they will burrow by preference in those holding the 

 least of it. This fact is continually exhibited in large collec- 

 tions, where, if two birds be side bj^ side, one being duly ar- 

 senicized and the other not so, one will be taken and the other 

 left. My second item, with its proper deduction, will form, I 

 think, a fitting conclusion to this treatise. It is a fact in the 

 natural history of these our pests, that they are fond of peace 



