VOL. XLV.] PHILOSOPHICAL THANSACTIONS. 607 



and even falls short of sufficiently imitating nature, unless with 'care and time. 

 So that it is certainly most convenient only to send the bird as it has been re- 

 ceived. There is no great skill required for putting one or several into a vessel 

 full of spirit of wine, or very strong brandy. But their feathers do not show 

 those various and bright colours, which are natural to them while they are im- 

 mersed in some liquor, and which appear no longer on the bird's feathers when 

 taken out of it. Besides, the vanes of the feathers are then disordered, and 

 glued too much together. On these first appearances, it was judged too hastily, 

 that spirituous liquors changed the colours of the feathers, and hindered the 

 reducing of them to the order and pliableness they had on the animal, when dry 

 and living. However, repeated experiments have made M. Reaumur sensible, 

 that the colour of the feathers is proof against the strongest brandy, and even 

 spirit of wine, and that after having dried the bird that had been soaked, we 

 may easily put its feathers into their natural order, and make it appear as it was 

 when alive. 



To preserve birds which are to be sent from afar, you are only to keep theax 

 in brandy, or spirit of wine. 



If any of the bird's feathers are bloody, you must wash them from tim6 to 

 time with a wet linen, till they no longer leave a mark on the linen, or in the 

 water in which they are soaked. Lay the feathers straight by smoothing them 

 with a finger from the head towards the tail in squeezing them together. This 

 helps the feathers to take the position which is most natural to them, and in this 

 position they are kept by wrapping the bird up in a' rag, tying about the neok 

 and the body several times a strong packthread : the feathers on the neck are 

 chiefly those which must be kept from a wrong turn. 



The precaution of taking out of the body the intestines and other parts it 

 contains, is not absolutely necessary; it is better however to do it : if afterwards 

 their place is supplied by filling the cavity of the belly with all the quantity it can 

 contain of wool, hemp, cotton, or other soft matter; if you fill the neck, though 

 without distending it, with the same soft matter, you will more surely preserve 

 the shape and dimensions of the bird. 



It is still more easy to hinder the birds from being tossed, and they will even 

 be the better preserved, if before they are sent, you take them out of the liquor 

 in which they have lain a sufficient time ; it has made them fit to dry without 

 any danger of corruption. Small birds, such as of the size of sparrows, and even 

 of blackbirds, after having been covered 8 or 10 days with strong brandy, may 

 be taken out without any fear of their being corrupted. Large birds, and espe- 

 cially such as are very fleshy, are to be kept longer in the liquor ; but there are 

 none or few, for which it may not be enough to have lain in it a month or 6 

 weeks. According as you take them out, you must range them one next to the 



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