18 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY. 



Carrying Birds Home Safe. — Suppose you have secured a fine specimec, very likely 

 without a soiled or ruffled feather ; your next care will be to keep it so till you are ready to 

 skin it. But if you pocket or bag it directly, it will be a sorry-looking object before you get 

 home. Each specimen must be separately cared for, by wrapping in stout paper; writing 

 paper is as good as any, if not the best. It will repay you to prepare a stock of paper before 

 startino- out ; your most convenient sizes are those of a half-sheet of note, of letter, and of cap 

 respectively. Either take these, or fold and cut newspaper to correspond; besides, it is always 

 well to have a ivholc newspaper or two for large birds. Plenty of paper will go in the breast 

 pockets of the shooting-coat. Make a "cornucopia," — the simplest thing in the world, but, 

 like tjdng a particular knot, hard to explain. Setting the wings closely, adjusting disturbed 

 feathers, and seeing that the bill points straight forward, thrust the bird head first into one 

 of these paper cones, till it will go no further, being bound by the bulge of the breast. Let 

 the cone be large enough for the open end to fold over or pinch together entirely beyond the 

 tail. Be particular not to crumple or bend the tail- feathers. Lay the paper cases in the game 

 bag or great pocket so that they very nearly run parallel and lie horizontal ; they will carry 

 better than if thrown in at random. Avoid overcrowding the packages, as far as is reasonably 

 practicable ; moderate pressure will do no harm, as a rule, but if great it may make birds 

 bleed afresh, or cause the fluids of a wounded intestine to ooze out and soak the plumage of 

 the belly, — a very bad accident indeed. For similar obvious reasons, do not put a large heavy 

 bird on top of a lot of little ones ; I would sooner sling a hawk or heron over my shoulder, or 

 carry it by hand. If it goes in the bag, see that it gets to the bottom. Avoid putting birds 

 in pockets that are close about your person ; they are almost always unduly pressed, and may 

 gain just enough additional warmth from your body to make them begin to decompose before 

 you can get at skinning them. Handle birds no more than is necessary, especially white- 

 plumaged ones ; ten to one your hands are powder-begrimed : and besides, even the warmth 

 and moisture of your palms may tend to injure a delicate feathering. Ordinarily pick up a 

 bird by the feet or bill ; as you need 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 whatever you 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 aU 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. 



A Special Case. — 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 for this purpose. With such precautions as these birds most liable 

 to be soiled reach the skinning table in perfect order ; and your care will afterward transform 

 them into specimens without spot or blemish. 



