COLLECTING BIRDS 15 



one with sharp points and long handles, and one of medium size with 

 blunt ends; one medium size, flat-end 'eye-f creeps' ; thread, pins and 

 needles. This outfit, which can be purchased of a dealer in naturalists' 

 supplies or surgical instruments, can be enlarged as circumstances 

 require or taste directs. 



Any cotton will do for filling skins, but for use in wrapping them, 

 procure the best cotton batting that money will buy. Usually it will be 

 found that absorbent cotton, such as may be purchased at drug stores, 

 will be as good as if not better than any which is available. 



Large birds may be filled with excelsior or a body made of crumpled 

 newspaper, possibly covered with a thin sheet of cotton. 



REFERENCES 



1900. PYNCHON, W. H. C., A Method of Recording Observations, 

 Bird-Lore, II, 19-22. 1900. CHAPMAN, F. M., Bird Studies with a Camera, 

 12mo., 218 pp., Jllus. (Appleton). 1901. HERRICK, F. H., The Home Life 

 of Wild Birds, rev. ed., 1905, 8vo., 255 pp. (Putnam's). 1902. BAILEY, F. M. 

 Handbook of Birds of Western United States, introduction (Houghton, 

 Mifflin & Co.). 1902. DUGMORE, A. R., Nature and the Camera, 8vo., 

 126 pp. (Doubleday). 1902. FELGER, A. H., A Plan for Recording in a 

 Condensed Form the Life History Notes of Birds, Auk, XIX, 189-195. 

 1904. BROWNELL, Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist (Macmillan). 

 1910. JOB, H. K., How to Study Birds, (Outing Co.). 1911. BEETHAM, 

 B., Photography for Bird Lovers, 12mo., 126pp., illus. (Witherby, London.) 



COLLECTING BIRDS, THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



Collecting Birds 



Care of the Bird in Me Field 



Making Birdskins 



Sexing 



Cataloguing and Labeling 



Care of a Collection 



Collecting and Preserving Nests and Eggs 



Collecting Birds. When one goes to a country whose birds are 

 unknown or but little known, the first thing to do is to collect and 

 preserve them in order that they may be properly named and classified, 

 and that our records of their distribution may rest on the tangible 

 ground of specimens. 



This is the essential procedure in beginning the study of bird-life 

 the world over, but once thoroughly done, it is neither necessary nor 

 desirable to repeat it indefinitely, 



To say that one cannot become an ornithologist without first having 

 been a collector of bird's skins, is to confess ignorance of the advance 

 which has been made in the methods and possibilities of bird study. 



The non-collector will possibly never have that intimate, personal, 

 first-hand knowledge of specific differences which has been gained by 

 the man who has handled many birds of his own killing, nor will he 



