270 
SOME HINTS FOR BEGINNERS ON COLLECTING AND 
PRESERVING NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS. 
By HK. Comper. 
Part II. 
(Continued from page 112 of this Volume.) 
After the first part of this paper went to press, I received the following 
useful hints from Mr, R, C. Wroughton about the preservation of small 
mammals :— 
1, Inskinning bats the limb should not be cut at the knee or elbow, but 
the hip or shoulder joint. It is most difficult to make a decent skin with only 
- the fore arm and lower leg left in. 
2. The measurement “ Hind foot is no use in bats. “ Fore arm” should 
be substituted, 
3. The rule to pin the fore feet close to the head is not to be taken too 
literally, or the specimens will be too cylindrical and will not ‘‘lie”’ in the 
cabinet, It is much better to pin the fore paws with about an inch between 
them (é.¢., with ordinary bats and mice) and the hind feet the same. This 
gives the specimen a flat base to lie on, and it does not roll about when one 
opens and shuts the drawer. 
4. Take out the brain before macerating a skull. It seems to ferment 
and sometimes blows up the skull, i 
Followimg on the Mammals that were dealt with in the first part of this 
paper, we can now turn our attention to the great class Aves which com- 
prises all the feathered fowl of the world, 
Birds, as a class, are a particularly well-defined group, being separated from 
all other forms of animal life by so many distinctive characters, and are 
besides so universally distributed over almost every portion of the earth’s 
surface, that, go where we may, some species are around us almost every day 
of our lives. This companionship and familiarity with birds does not, how- 
ever, in any way tend to Jessen our respect for our friends, and it is difficult | 
to imagine any man’s natural feelings being so depraved as to fail in apprecia- 
tion of a bird’s beauty. There certainly is something in the appearance 
or character of every species of bird that is attractive to our humble minds. 
Some, of course, are beautiful in every way, but even those that have least 
claim to such a designation, possess some redeeming character ; even the vul- 
tures, whose habits are in many ways repulsive, cause one to forget all that 
by raising a feeling of admiration for the grandeur and grace of their flight 
as they soar across the sky, And so with all others that I ever knew. 
From the point of view of the Naturalist, birds have always claimed a 
large share of attention, and in India there has been no exception to this 
general rule. The long list of the names of Indian ornithologists would fill 
apage of our journal, and this is perhaps most forcibly instanced by the 
fact that no other section of Natural History has ever found workers in 
