[19] DIRECTIONS FOE COLLECTING BIRDS RIDGWAY. 



it should be held over the box and gently tapped to loosen the superflu- 

 ous powder. 



Should the alcoholic paste be preferred, it may be applied with a 

 bristle brush, or better still with a wad of cotton tied to the end of a 

 small stick, the advantage in the latter being that it can be thrown 

 away when a day's work is done and a new one quickly made when 

 another is required. 



Gleaning soiled or greasy specimens. — While blood- stained specimens 

 are supposed to have been partially cleaned immediately after they were 

 shot, as directed on page 13, further cleaning is necessary before the 

 bird can be considered a good and finished specimen. This final clean- 

 ing should be done when the bird is entirely skinned, but before the 

 preservative is applied. Bloody specimens should never he washed before 

 they are shinned, as the application of water only serves to draM' out 

 more blood through the shot holes. 



After the bird has been skinned, however, and the inner surface of 

 the skin thoroughly freed from blood by sponging or wiping, then the 

 feathers may be washed clean, using a soft sponge and warm water, and 

 dried with corn meal or some other clean absorbent substance, care 

 beiug taken not to allow any of these substances, especially plaster of 

 Paris, to dry on the feathers, each application being thoroughly removed 

 as soon as it becouies saturated with moisture. Repeated applications 

 and much patience are required to clean a specimen thoroughly, but the 

 result is well worth all the trouble and loss of time, unless the specimen 

 is one of no value. 



Corn meal is probably the best of all substances for drying moistened 

 feathers, but can not always be obtained. In its absence, clean dry 

 sand, whiting, or plaster of Paris may be used, although the two last 

 named should not be used on birds of dark plumage, since it is next to 

 impossible to remove it all from the feathers, which ever after have a 

 dusty or powdered appearance. On birds of white or very light-colored 

 plumage, however, plaster of Paris is better than anything else; but 

 even on these as much as possible should be removed by persistent 

 whipping and blowing of the feathers. 



Dry blood stains should not be washed, but should first be pried or 

 chipped oft' with the finger nail, or back of a knife, and then carefully 

 scraped and manipulated with a stiff brush, such as a jeweler's brush 

 or ar toothbrush. 



Fat birds are very difficult to clean, but the removal of every particle 

 of fat is very important, since, in addition to the certainty of the fat 

 which is allowed to remain on the skin gradually working out through 

 the shot holes and other openings and greasing the feathers, the combi- 

 nation of the fat with the arsenic produces a chemical compound which 

 is very injurious to the skin, rendering it "rotten," or brittle. 



A bountiful application of corn meal, plaster, etc., during the process 

 of skinning is a great help toward removing the grease, and in the case 



