VOL. LX.3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Sf. 



sharpening the wire at one end, and running it first through one wing and 

 through the body, out at the other wing, both being in their proper places: then 

 the feathers must be disposed in the manner most proper to the position of each 

 part, and the expression intended to be conveyed. The feet and bill may be 

 varnished over with the same sort of varnish that is used for the preservation. 

 The bird must then stand for a day or two in an airy place for the varnish to 

 penetrate and tix; and lastly, the bird must be baked in an oven; it is not 

 absolutely necessary, but it makes them dry, and finishes the preservatio^i imme- 

 diately. If the bird has been some time dead and has any disagreeable smell, 

 this method makes it perfectly sweet ; but care must be taken not to put them 

 into the oven while it is too hot, as it would blister the bill and nails. I'he best 

 rule to know when the oven has a proper degree of heat, is this; while the oven 

 is cooling, throw in now and then a toil feather taken from any fowl, which must 

 be placed about the middle of the oven. If it is too hot, the feather will have 

 a motion and be bent: we must therefore wait a while, and put in another 

 feather, till we observe tliere is no motion or bending; then on taking it out, 

 and bending it with the finger, if it breaks, the oven is still too hot, and we 

 must wait till feathers that have been in for a few minutes will bend without 

 breaking. When the oven is thus fit, the birds must be put in, and the door 

 of the oven closed, till it is quite cooled. 



The birds in this manner will be perfectly preserved; but as there still remains 

 some oily matter in the feathers, the moths and other insects will deposit their 

 eggs and generate their young in the plumage, if the birds are not carefully 

 cased up. The cases must be first well washed on the inside with the following 

 camphorated spirits, viz. Take one pound of camphor and boil it in half a 

 gallon of spirit of turpentine till well dissolved; and while hot, wash all the 

 inside of the cases by means of a brush, and, as soon as dry, place the birds in, 

 and close it up, and guard the joints of the doors or seams with paper or putty. 

 Though the room, in which the cases of birds, &c. are kept, cannot be too dry, 

 the sun should not be permitted to shine in, as it will certainly discharge the 

 finer colours of the plumage. Baking is not only useful in fresh preservations, 

 but will also be of very great service to old ones, destroying the eggs of insects; 

 and it should be a constant practice once in '2 or 3 years, to bake them over 

 again, and to have the cases fresh washed, as above, which would not only 

 preserve collections from decay much longer, but also keep them sweet. 



XXyil. Description of the Blunt-headed Cachalot. By James Robertson, Esq. 



of Edinburgh, p. 321. 

 A physeter caetodon Linnaei, or blunt-headed cachalot, ran ashore on Cramond 

 Island, and was there killed, December 22, 17 69. Cramond Island is in the 



VOL. XIII. I 



