OF THE THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 39 



pinafore lull of little dead birds which were being washed up from 

 the lake all along the shore. In former years it was the custom 

 with those who wished a collection of birds to have them mounted 

 and placed in glass cases, but the mounting in very many instances 

 failed to satisfy those who were familiar with the appearance of the 

 birds in life ; besides which they took up too much room, and 

 always suffered by transportation. This mode is now practiced 

 mostly by public museums, where the specimens remain permanently 

 and are under the care of a curator. The plan now followed by 

 amateur collectors is to skin and preserve the specimen, filling out 

 the skin with cotton to about the natural size so as to make the bird 

 look as if newly killed. In this way they are kept in trays in a 

 cabinet, where they are easy of access for measurement or examina- 

 tion, besides which, through the facilities offered for transportation 

 by mail, an exchange of duplicates can at very small cost be made 

 by collectors, residing at far distant points. On the table there are 

 now brought together in this way specimens from Alaska to Texas, 

 and from New Brunswick to California, as well as many intermediate 

 points. 



The month of May, above all others in the year, is the one 

 enjoyed by collectors, the birds being now arrayed in their richest 

 dress, and excursions to the woods in pursuit of them offering so 

 pleasing a change after our long, hard winter has passed away. 

 There is no group of our small birds so interesting as the Warblers, 

 which, though they do not differ much in size, yet vary greatly in 

 plumage, some of them such as the Blackburnian and Black and 

 Yellow being exceedingly beautiful, while others are so extremely 

 rare everywhere that the securing of one is an event of the season. 

 Among the latter class I may name the Cape May, of which I got 

 two specimens at the Beach one morning in May, 1884. 



The name of John Cassin has already been mentioned in this 

 paper as a representative Ornithologist of his time. Hear what he 

 says about the birds we are describing : — 



"Bird collecting," says Mr. Cassin, "is the ultimate refinement, 

 the ne plus ultra of all the sports of the field. It is attended with 

 all the excitement, and requires all the skill of other shooting with a 

 much higher degree of theoretical information, and consequent 

 gratification in its exercise. Personal activity (not necessarily to be 

 exerted over so great a space as in game bird shooting, but in a 



