92 PKACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



Mucli of the success of the collector depends on having 

 his gun properly charged. For shooting small birds, a 

 light gun of small bore, loaded lightly with ordinary 

 pasteboard wads will answer. For shooting large birds at 

 long range, a heavy 12 or 10-bored gun is best, loaded 

 with two of Eley's pmk-edge wads over the powder, and 

 a light wad over the shot. Four or four and a half 

 drams of powder, with an ounce and a quarter of shot, 

 is a proper load for a solid 12-bore gun, and five and a 

 half or six drams of powder, with an ounce and a half 

 of shot, is a suitable charge for a heavy 10-bore gun. For 

 general shooting with cylinder-bored guns, the ducking, 

 or second grade powders, of medium grain, are the best. 

 Moist powders appear to give the best ^^ pattern," though 

 when used in rapid firing with muzzle-loaders, miss fires 

 are liable to occur. 



The first brands of American black powder, such as 

 Dupont's Diamond Grrain, Hazard's Electric, Laflin & 

 Rand's Orange Lightning, and the American Powder 

 Co.'s Telegraph Sporting, are quick, dry powders, best 

 adapted to breech-loading shot-guns. The various com- 

 panies sell equal grades to the trade at about the same 

 prices, but every collector has a favorite brand. 



There are are about 640 species of birds in North 

 America, from the Mexican boundary to the Arctic 

 Ocean, and the collector will be compelled to visit nearly 

 every State and Territory to find them all. He will have 

 to cruise both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts for sea- 

 birds, scour the States on the Atlantic for many of the 

 smaller species, camp on the barren plains of the West 

 for the long-spurred buntings and other birds of the 

 prairies, and climb the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky 

 Mountains for the white-tailed ptarmigans, dusky grouse, 

 water ouzels, etc. One often finds birds of the same 

 genus at points thousands of miles apart. 



In field collecting, birds, when first shot, should be 



