20 .TAXIDERMY. 



also preserve those which have been taken with 

 bird-lime, taking care to remove it with alcohol, or, 

 which is better, with ether, which is easily done by 

 slightly rubbing the feathers that are smeared by 

 the bird-lime, with small pieces of rag or cotton, 

 changing them several times until the bird-lime is 

 wholly taken away. In the summer it is necessary 

 to skin the birds on returning from the field, or, at 

 furthest, the next day, otherwise the putrefaction 

 would occasion the loss of the feathers ; but in win- 

 ter it is possible to defer it for some days. I have 

 mounted one at Paris which had been sent from the 

 Lake of Geneva, and which was still very fresh. 

 In southern countries, Africa, America, &c. we 

 must prepare the animals in the places where they 

 have been killed, 



PREPARATION OF MAMMALIA. 



1. Of Man. 



ALL the efforts of man to restore the skin of his 

 fellow creature to its natural form and beauty, have 

 hitherto been fruitless ; the trials which have been 

 made have only produced mis-shapen hideous ob- 

 jects, and so unlike nature, that they have never 

 found a place in our collections. We have only 

 some parts of man, either dried or preserved in 

 spirits of wine ? sufficiently entire to be recognised. 



