ON PRESERVING BIRDS FOR CABINETS 

 OF NATURAL HISTORY 



Were you to pay as much attention to birds as 

 the sculptor does to the human frame, you would 

 immediately see, on entering a museum, that the 

 specimens are not well done. 



This remark will not be thought severe when 

 you reflect that that which once was a bird has 

 probably been stretched, stuffed, stiffened, and 

 wired by the hand of a common clown. Consider 

 likewise how the plumage must have been disor- 

 dered by too much stretching or drying, and per- 

 haps sullied, or at least deranged, by the pressure 

 of a coarse and heavy hand — plumage which, ere 

 life had fled from within it, was accustomed to be 

 touched by nothing rougher than the dew of 

 heaven, and the pure and gentle breath of air. 



In dissecting, three things are necessary to 

 ensure success, viz., a penknife, a hand not coarse 

 or clumsy, and practice. The first will furnish 

 you with the means; the second will enable you 

 to dissect; and the third cause you to dissect 

 well. These may be called the mere mechanical 

 requisites. 



In stuffing, you require cotton, a needle and 

 thread, a little stick the size of a common knitting- 

 needle, glass eyes, a solution of corrosive subli- 

 mate, and any kind of a common temporary box 



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