Instructions for Collectors. 
No: 2. 
Birds and their Eggs. - 
I.—Instructions for the Preservation 
of the Skins of Birds. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
A LITTLE patience and a little practice are all that is required to 
make a good skin of a bird. Also it should be remembered that no 
more time is wanted to make a good skin than a bad one. Thus it 
should be the aim of every naturalist to attain perfection in the art 
of preparing specimens ; and, after all, this is very easy. 
Tools.—-The skinning of a bird demands but few tools. Many 
collectors require a penknife only ; but the tyro should be provided 
at least with a sharp knife or scalpel, a pair of stout nail-scissors, 
as well as some arsenical soap, bleached wool, tow, and a sharp- 
pointed awl or darning-needle. 
The knife is needed for making the first incision, and it is useful 
for scraping off fat from the skin. The nail-scissors are wanted for 
cutting through the flesh, and severing the tendons and the bones at 
their joints. The aw! or darning-needle is useful for re-arranging 
disordered plumage. 
Preservatives, etc.—Arsenical soap is the best preservative for 
general use, as skins dressed with it retain much of their natural 
elasticity, and can at any time be mounted. Powdered arsenic is 
largely used, especially by American naturalists, and is useful in a 
damp climate, as it dries the skins quickly. The disadvantages of 
employing it are, firstly, the danger in carrying it about, and 
secondly, that specimens so preserved become shrunken and _ brittle, 
and are never so easy to mount. Alum and pepper do not keep 
off the attacks of moths and beetles, and for various reasons are 
not to be recommended. Carbolized specimens are all but worthless, 
