CHAPTER XXX. 



SOME HINTS ON TAXIDERMY. THE ART OF OBTAINING AND 

 PRESERVING THE SKINS OF BIRDS. 



T is often very important that the sports- 

 man should know something in reference 

 to the art of preserving and setting up 

 the game he loves so much to pur- 

 sue; for he may at any time, when a 

 long distance from home and far away 

 from help, come across some curious 

 specimen, a rara avis, — a white par- 

 tridge, a pied woodcock, or a mottled 

 snipe, for example, — the preservation of 

 which, for a place in his cabinet, would be a source of great 

 satisfaction as well as pride. All this can be accomplished with- 

 out any difficulty, provided the sportsman makes himself familiar 

 with the very simple modus operandi of skinning a bird and 

 the best plan of preserving the skin sweet till it is placed in 

 the hands of an artist more competent to finish the under- 

 taking. 



The principal and most important object to be attained in the 



preservation of a specimen, after we have shot it, is the protection 

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