114 APPENDIX TO MANUAL. 



without employ of colored wads as suggested in the text. They may 

 be taken into the field empty, and loaded on occasion to suit; but it is 

 better to pay a trifle extra to have them loaded at the shop. In such 

 case, about four-fifths of the stock should contain mustard-seed, nearly 

 all the rest about No. 7, a very few being reserved for about No. 4. 

 Cost of ammunition is hardly appreciably increased ; its weight is put 

 in the most conveniently portable shape ; the whole apparatus for 

 carrying it, and loading the shells, is dispensed with; much time is 

 saved, the entire drudgery (excepting gun-cleaning) of collecting 

 being avoided. I was prepared in this way during the past summer 

 for the heaviest work I have yet succeeded in accomplishing during 

 the same length of time. In June, when birds were plentiful, I easily 

 averaged fifteen skins a day, and occasionally made twice as many. 

 As items serving to base calculations, I may mention that in four 

 months I used about two thousand cartridges, loaded, at $42 per M., 

 with seven-eighths of an ounce of shot and two and three-fourths 

 drachms of powder ; only about three hundred were charged with shot 

 larger than mustard-seed. In estimating the size of a collection that 

 may result from use of a given number of cartridges, it may not be 

 safe for even a good shot to count on much more than half as many 

 specimens as cartridges. The number is practically reduced by the 

 following steps :— Cartridges lost or damaged, or originally defective ; 

 shots missed ; birds killed or wounded, not recovered ; specimens 

 secured unfit for preservation, or not preserved for any reason; speci- 

 imens accidentally spoilt in stufling, or subsequently damaged so as 

 to be not worth keeping; and finally, use of cartridges to supply the 

 table. I will add, that ray preference for central-fire cartridges con- 

 tinues. 



Page 10, line 7 from bottom, /or where read when. 



" 13^ '■'■at half-cock." Some guns are now fitted with a "re- 

 bounding" lock, as it is called; an arrangement by which the hammer 

 flies back to half-cock as soon as it has delivered the blow. This 

 device enhances safety, and is particularly eligible for breech-loaders, 

 since the gun may at once be broken down, reloaded and relocked, 

 without fingering the hammer. 



Page 28 ; mr% of birds. In striking illustration of the text may be 

 cited the cases of Balrd's Bunting and the Missouri Skylark, both 

 birds which remained for many years among our special desiderata, 

 but which arc two of the most abundant and characteristic species of 

 Northern Dakota, where I lately took as many of each as I wanted. 

 (See Am. Niit. vii, 1873, p. 695.) 



Page 28. Treating of the suite of each species that it is desirable 

 to secure, I neglected to speak particularly of the care that should be 

 taken to procure full series of females. Most miscellaneous collections 



