340 ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 



PRE B 7 R * V S ING should not correspond with your expectations, 



do not let that cast you down. You cannot 



become an adept all at once. The poor hawk 

 itself, which you have just been dissecting, waited 

 to be fledged, before it durst rise on expanded 

 pinion; and had parental aid, and frequent prac- 

 tice, ere it could soar with safety and ease beyond 

 the sight of man. 



Little more remains to be added, except that 

 what has been penned down with regard to birds, 

 may be applied, in some measure, to serpents, 

 insects, and four-footed animals. 



Should you find these instructions too tedious, 

 let the wish to give you every information plead 

 in their defence. They might have been shorter ; 

 but Horace says, by labouring to be brief you 

 become obscure. 



If, by their means, you should be enabled to 

 procure specimens from foreign parts in better 

 preservation than usual, so that the naturalist 

 may have it in his power to give a more perfect 

 description of them than has hitherto been the 

 case ; should they cause any unknown species to 

 be brought into public view, and thus add a little 

 more to the page of natural history, it will please 

 me much. But should they, unfortunately, tend 

 to cause a wanton expense of life ; should they 

 tempt you to shoot the pretty songster warbling 

 near your door, or destroy the mother, as she is 



