APPENDIX. 175 



through the eye-hoies with a surgeon's director), the cavities and 

 inside of the skin are to be sprinkled with the powders mentioned 

 belov/. Glass eyes, which are preferable to wax, are then to I e 

 inserted, and the head stuffed with cotton or tow, and a \yire is to 

 be passed do^vn the throat through one of the nostrils, and fixed on 

 the breast bone. Wires also to be introduced through the feet, up 

 theiegs and thighs, and inserted into the same bone; next fill the 

 JDody with cotton, to its natural size, and sew the skin over it : the 

 attitude is lastly to be attended to, and whatever position the sub- 

 ject is placed in to dry, it will be retained afterwards. The dyehig 

 compound is as follows : 



Corrosive Subhmate . . •_ . . i lb. 



Saltpetre, prepared or bui-nt 

 Alum, burnt . 

 Elowers of Sulphur , 

 Camphor . 

 Black Pepper . 

 Tobacco, ground coarse 



h lb. 

 ilb. 

 Ub. 

 ilb. 

 lib. 

 lib. 



Mis the whole, and keep it hi a glass vessel, stopped close. Small 

 bhds may be preserved in brandy, rum, arrack, or first runnings ; 

 though the colour of the plumage is liable to be extracted by the 

 spirit. Large sea-fowl have thick strong skins, and such may be 

 skmned; the tail, claws, head, and feet are carefully to be pre- 

 served, and the plumage stained as little as possible with blood. 

 The inside of the skin may be stuffed as above. Kuckahu observes 

 (in the Phil. Trans., vol. ix. p. 319), that " Baking is not only useful 

 in the fresh preservations, but will also be of verjr great service 

 to old ones, destroymg the eggs of insects ; and it should be a 

 constant practice, once in two or three years, to bake them over 

 agam, and to have the cases fresh washed with camphorated spkit, 

 or the sublimate solution, wliich would not only preserve col- 

 lections from decay much longer, but also keep them sweet." 

 But Dr. Lettsom remarked that, "Baking is apt to crimp and injure 

 the plumage, unless great care be used, and, therefore, the proper 

 degree of heat should be ascertauied by means of a feather, before 

 such subjects are baked." And he prescribes as the best preserva- 

 tive, boxes well glazed : and he adds, "When the subject is to be 

 kcDt for some time in a hot climate, it should be secured in a box 

 filled with tow, oakum, or tobacco, well sprinkled with the sub- 

 limate solution. In Guiana, the number and variety of beautiful 

 birds is so great, that several persons in the colony advantageously 

 employ themselves, with their slaves and attendants, in killing and 

 preserving these animals for the cabinets of naturahsts in different 

 parts of Europe. The method of doing this, as related by Mr. Ban- 

 croft (in his Nat. Hist, of Guiana), is, to put the bird which is to 

 be preserved in a proper vessel, and cover him with high wines, or 

 the first running of the distillation of rum. In this sphit he is 

 suffered to remaui for twenty -four or forty-eight hours, or longer, 

 till it has penetrated through every part of his body. When this 



