VOL. LX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 51 



incision must be made, in order to extract the entrails and put in the materials 

 that are to effect the preservation. Now it is impossible to close that incision 

 so tight, as to confine the pickle from creeping out, and whenever it does get 

 out, it will infallibly spoil the plumage; or if, to prevent that, we hang up the 

 birds by the feet, then the pickle will descend to the neck and head, before the 

 upper parts in that situation are sufficiently cured ; the certain consequence of 

 which, (in summer here, and at all seasons in hot climates) will be, that maggots 

 will be generated in such uncured parts, and of course the birds destroyed. Sup- 

 posing however for a moment (what will scarcely be found to happen once in a 

 thousand trials) that the pickle should jjenetrate and cure every part, we have 

 then, what? — a bird preserved in its natural shape, dimensions, attitude, and 

 colours. No, but we have a poor shrivelled up dried carcase of a bird, in which 

 neither the natural shape, dimensions, nor colours, are preserved, and which 

 continually excites the disagreeable idea of its having been starved to death on 

 purpose. It is true the eyes look lively and in full preservation; and no wonder, 

 for they are glass; they serve, however, by the contrast, to show more strikingly 

 the miserable condition of the rest of the body. One would have imagined that 

 so palpable an absurdity, as the placing a fine full glistening eye in the head of a 

 body, not only manifestly dead, but appearing to have perished by sickness or 

 famine, would have been obvious to every body; to have kindly suffered the 

 languid eyelids to close, would have at least avoided so ridiculous a contradiction. 

 Lastly, experience shows that birds thus treated are seldom or never so cured, 

 but that the flesh grows rank; that rankness invites the insects, and of course 

 the bird is soon destroyed. 



A second method of preserving birds is, by immerging them in spirits ; and if 

 the barely keeping the carcase of birds from putrefaction be all that is required, 

 this method is effectual. Another method is that of skinning birds; they had 

 no other way in Germany and Holland, and it was generally practised in France 

 till very lately, when the method of preserving by alum, salt, and pepper, was 

 published and recommended. Skinning, compared with the other methods, is 

 no bad way, but yet it is subject to many objections; 1st, there is a great diffi- 

 culty in skinning, especially small delicate birds, killed perhaps by large shot; 

 2d, most people will find it hardly possible to reduce the skins to their natural 

 proportions and attitudes, particularly the necks, which are often twice as long 

 when separated from the vertebrae, as before; 3dly, the flesh and bones of the 

 wings and rump must, after all, be left with the skin, and are as difficult to pre- 

 serve as any other parts of the body. However, those who chuse to continue 

 this method, will find their interest in making use of the materials recommended 

 below. 



Those who shoot birds for the purpose of preserving, should always be pro- 



h2 



