APPENDIX. Y 



Cut off the piece of wool protruding from the mouth, and tie the beak up, or it will gape in an unsightlj' 

 manner. Small birds should be placed head downwards in a cone of paper, and hung up. Large 

 specimens should have the wings kept together by tying a piece of tape round the body, the head should be 

 kept in the right position, and the bird left undisturbed until it is dry. The length of time that this takes 

 varies with the climate. In exeessivelj' damp regions, like New Guinea, skins never dry thoroughly unless 

 exposed to the sun or artificial heat ; while in the uplands of Africa they will sometimes become quite stiff 

 before you have finished removing them, and require to be damped again previous to the insertion of 

 the body. 



The sex of the specimen has next to be determined. Cut the abdomen open, and push aside the 

 intestines until the back-bone is visible. Lying close against it, and on either side, two whitish glandular 

 bodies — the testes — will be seen if the bird is a male. If a female, the ovaries will be found occupying the 

 same position — a collection of minute globular bodies resembling a miniature bunch of grapes. In the 

 breeding season these will often be found of considerable size. In some cases, especially if the bird is 

 badlj' shot in that region, it may be impossible to distinguish the sex, and, if so, the fact should be 

 recorded on the label which, on finishing your bird, you will invariably affix to its leg. Recollect that, 

 without some indication of the locality and sex, every specimen is practicallj' valueless from a naturalist's 

 point of view. For almost everyone forming a collection, however small it may be, it is worth while to 

 have these labels printed. The cost is very small, — a few shillings only, — -and the trouble saved is 

 considerable. The example here given is a very good model. On the one side the colour of the iris, bill. 



E MUSEO 



O 



Ibis.. 

 Bill 



J. Jones. ' Legs 



and legs will be noted ; on the other there is a space for the insertion of the length of the specimen, and 

 another for the number referring to any entry you may have made in your note-book. Above these are 

 two blank lines ; at the end of the first j'ou will write the symbols <? or ? , according as the specimen is a 

 male or female, leaving the rest to be filled in afterwards with the scientific name. On the second you will 

 note the exact locality (or the latitude and longitude, if at sea) where the bird was shot, together with 

 the date. 



Allusion has been made to the impossibility, in some cases, of getting the skin of the neck to pass 

 over the head. To obviate this difficulty the neck will have to be severed, and the skin turned right side 

 outwards. A longitudinal incision will then have to be made in the skin of the upper part of the neck, of 

 sufficient size to admit of the passage of the head. The back of the neck is the best place in which to 

 make it. The head being cleaned as in the directions already given, it should be returned, and the incision 

 carefully sewn up with fine stitches before the cotton-wool neck is inserted. 



Your specimen is now skinned, dried, and labelled. It only remains for you to store it in some place 

 of safety, where neither cats nor insects can get at it. In Euroj^e you will not have much difficulty in this, 

 but in many parts of the tropics the preservation of one's skins, owing to white ants and other pests, is a 

 constant source of anxiety. On the whole the best method is to place them, with plenty of loose camphor, 

 in camphor-wood boxes, made air-tight by pasting fine cotton-wool on the edges. As they accumulate they 

 can, if perfectly dry, be soldered up in tin boxes. Then, and then only, is the collector's mind at rest. 



F. H. H. GUILLEMAED. 



