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ON 



PRESERVING BIRDS 



FOR 



CABINETS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



WERE you to pay as much attention to birds, PRESERVING 

 as $ie 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 disordered, by too much stretching or 

 drying, and perhaps 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 Dissecting. 

 ensure success ; viz. a penknife, a hand not 



Y 



