218 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



be inserted, or pushed by a blunt wooden or whalebone 

 probe. The animal is now to be fixed on a board, by 

 means of the projecting wires of the soles of the feet, pres- 

 sed into a suitable form and attitude, the incision sewed up, 

 and the whole dried in a current of air, or before a fire. 



Where the animals are of a large size, nearly the whole 

 bones must be removed, a frame of wood prepared of the 

 original size, and the skin cautiously stretched over it, 

 filling up the intervals with tow or straw. The bats are 

 best preserved by emptying the skin of its contents at the 

 back or belly, as the one or the other is wished to be pre- 

 served entire for exhibition, by expanding their wings, and 

 fixing them with a thread to a piece of card-paper. 



The art of stuffing well can only be acquired by long 

 practice. In general, the body is made to appear too long, 

 and the legs being too much distended with the tow, look 

 as if they were swollen. 



BIRDS. 



Ovarium single. 



Birds ave distinguished from the animals of every other 

 division, by having their bodies covered with feathers. The 

 structure and mode of growth of these appendices of the 

 skin, have already been described, but we have still to con- 

 sider the characters which they furnish for the purposes of 

 classification. 



The feathers receive particular names from the parts of 

 the skin on which they grow. Those of the wings are the 

 most remarkable, as constituting the principal organs of 

 progressive motion in the air and in the water. These are 

 divided into quills and coverts. The quill feathers which 

 grow towards the extremity of the wing, on those bones 

 which aje analogous to the fingers in quadrupeds, are term- 



