322 ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 



PRESERVING coarse or clumsy, and practice. The first will 



BIRDS. 



" 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. 



stuffing. In stuffing, you require cotton, a needle and 



thread, a little stick the size of a common 

 knitting-needle, glass eyes, a solution of corro- 

 sive sublimate, and any kind of a common tem- 

 porary box to hold the specimen. These also may 

 go under the same denomination as the former. 

 But if you wish to excell in the art, if you wish 

 to be in ornithology, what Angelo was in sculp- 

 ture, you must apply to profound study, and 

 your own genius to assist you. And these may 

 be called the scientific requisites. 



Requisite to You must have a complete knowledge of 

 roJgtfknow- ornithological anatomy. You must pay close 

 OrnithoLgi- attention to the form and attitude of the bird, 

 cai Anatomy. am j ^now exactly the proportion each curve, or 

 extension, or contraction, or expansion of any 

 particular part bears to the rest of the body. 

 In a word, you must possess Promethean bold- 

 ness, and bring down fire, and animation, as it 

 were, into your preserved specimen. 

 Ermine the Repair to the haunts of birds, on plains and 



economy of / i i i i 



the orders of mountains, forests, swamps, and lakes, and give 

 up your time to examine the economy of the 

 different orders of birds. 



Then you will place your eagle, in attitude 



