24 INTRODUCTION. 



best way is to begin with the head, proceed along the ver- 

 tebras, clear the trunk, the tail, the wings, and the feet. Let 

 the preparation be placed each night in water. When the 

 whole is cleaned, the brain must be removed through the 

 occipital foramen, and the interior of the long bones washed 

 out with a syringe, access being obtained by a hole bored 

 at each end. When the skeleton has been so long mace- 

 rated in water as to be free of blood, let it be put into a 

 natural position, and retained there by means of wires and 

 threads until quite dry, when it may be fastened to a stand. 



Meanwhile, the young ornithologist will occasionally stroll 

 abroad, and obtain a bird. To find its name, he will first 

 inspect it well, and then compare its details with the cha- 

 racters given in the present Manual. Suppose it to be a 

 common Sparrow, its strong conical bill will shew at once 

 that it belongs to the Deglubritrices, with which he will find 

 it to correspond in all respects. The same organ and others 

 will refer him to the family of Passerinse, the genus Passer, 

 and the species domesticus. Many birds he will find with- 

 out difficulty, some may appear doubtful. Let him depend 

 little upon other persons for information, but trust chiefly 

 to himself, and resolve to accomplish his task. Difficulties 

 will daily become fewer. 



The study of the habits of birds will afford much pleasure. 

 There, for example, by the brook, is a small, compact, short- 

 tailed, black, white-breasted bird. You approach it so cau- 

 tiously and cunningly, that it does not perceive your pre- 

 sence. It stands on a stone, jerks up its tail, alternately 

 lowers and raises its body on its legs ; now, it walks out in- 

 to the water, disappears beneath the surface, suddenly bobs 

 up in the middle of the current, swims to the stone, and re- 

 sumes its jerks, uttering a short note, somewhat like the 

 sound produced by knocking one pebble against another. It 

 is the Dipper. In the wood you hear the moaning and me- 

 lancholy-seeming cry of some pigeon, which, perched on a 

 top-twig, thus talks to its mate, seated in a large flat nest 

 formed apparently of twigs. You know it must be the Cushat 



