PRESERVING BIRDS 



CABINETS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



WERE you to pay as much, attention to birds as the 

 sculptor does to the human frame, you would imme- 

 diately 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 



Dissecting. , . , , 



to ensure success, viz. a penknife, a hand not 

 coarse or clumsy, and practice. The first will 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. 



