NOTES ON BIRD PRESERVING. 135 



good bird-stuffer ; one of the best I ever knew had the clumsiest pair of 

 hands imaginable. There is therefore no reason why collectors should be 

 content with skins. Practically all that can be learnt from skins has been 

 learnt already, and I think it the duty of those who now destroy bird-life 

 to do their best to secure such reproductions as shall give most pleasure to 

 any who may afterwards go to see them. 



To begin with, the best way to secure rarities is to learn thoroughly 

 the notes, shape, and flight of the common birds, and then shoot what you 

 don't recognize. Always look carefully at a single shore-bird. One's efforts 

 to preserve a bird should begin the moment it is shot. If only winged, 

 capture it quickly, and, as Dr. Elliott Coues has well remarked, don't grab 

 at its tail you may get that and nothing else. When secured, don't let 

 your admiration for its beauties induce you to paw it about. If it is bleeding, 

 find the shot-holes at once and plug them with cotton-wool. If juices are 

 running, let them drain for a bit, and then plug also the throat and nostrils, 

 and if in no hurry lay the bird in the shade to stiffen. 



Now for its receptacle. After many trials I have abandoned the time- 

 honoured cone. In a cone the neck is sure to curl up, and, if juices do 

 escape, the bird presents a sorry spectacle when removed. I now carry 

 several pieces of stiff paper, and also a few pieces of cardboard about eight 

 inches wide, each with two parallel bends in them at equal distances from 

 the sides, such that with the aid of a tape they will easily form into a 

 triangular pipe. I then put a piece of paper round the bird and pin it across 

 the upper breast, tightly enough to prevent the shoulders slipping through. 

 Next lay the bird enclosed in paper on the centre of the cardboard, the 

 projecting ends of paper pointing upwards. Bend inwards the sides of the 

 cardboard, arranging for the ends of the paper to pass through their apex, 

 and tie a piece of tape round the whole. If carefully done, the bird's 

 head will now lie perfectly free, the juices being unable to get at any 

 feathers, and yet the whole will be protected from harm by the cardboard. 

 This system sounds rather elaborate on paper, but it works very easily 

 in the field in fact, it is almost as quick as making a cone. If the 

 bird is a large one, tie a handkerchief round its shoulders, the knot being 

 on the breast, and carry it head downwards by the legs, taking care not 

 to rub them. This is the safest of all ways to bring birds home, and 

 though it spoils one's shooting for the time, it is worth doing also in the 

 case of very rare small birds, a piece of paper and a pin being then 

 substituted for the handkerchief. In ordinary weather two or three days is 

 a good time to keep a bird before stuffing it. In the case of Warblers, &c., 



