48 



FIELD OBNITHOLOGY. 



should be done by the mouth and vent, be thorough, and be repeated several times as the 

 fluid dries in. It is an improvement on this to disembowel and fill the belly with saturated 

 tow or cotton. Due care sliould be taken not to soil the feathers in any case, nor should the 

 carboUc solution come in contact with the hands, for it is a powerful irritant poison. I mention 

 tlie process chiefly to condemn it as an atrocious one ; I cannot imagine what circumstances 

 would recommend it, wliile only an extreme emergency could justify it. It is furtlier objection- 

 able because it appears to lend a dingy hue to some plunjages, and to dull most of them 

 perceptibly. Birds prepared — rather unprepared — in this way, may be relaxed by the 

 method just described, and tlien skinned; but the operation is rather diflicult. 



Wet Preparations. — By this term is technically understood an object immersed in some 

 preservative fluid. It is highly desirable to obtain more information of birds tlian their stuffed 

 skins can ever furnish, and tlieir structure cannot be always examined by dissection on the 

 spot. In fact, a certain small proportion of the birds of any protracted or otlierwise " heavy " 

 collecting may be preferably and very profitably preserved in this way. Specimens in too 

 poor plumage to bo worth sldnning may be tlius utilized ; so may the bodies of skiimed Birds, 

 which, although necessarily defective, retain all the viscera, and also afford osteological mate- 

 rial. Alcohol is the liquid usually employed, and, of all the various articles recommended, 

 seems to answer best on the whole. I have used a very weak solution of chloride of zinc with 

 excellent results; it should not be strong enougli to show tlic sliglitcst turbidity. As glass 

 bottles are liable to break when traveUiug, do not tit corners, and ofler practical annoyance 

 about corkage, rectangular metal cans, preferably of copper, with screw-hd opening, are 

 advisable. They are to be set in small, strong, wooden Ijoxes, made to leave a little room for 

 the lid wrench, muslin bags for doing up separate parcels, parchment for labels, etc. Unoc- 

 cupied space in the cans should be tilled with tow or a similar substance, to prevent the 

 specimens from swashing abont. Labelling should be on parchment ; the writing should be 

 perfectly dry before innuersion ; iudia-ink is the best. Skinned bodies should be numbered to 

 correspond with the dried skin from which taken ; otherwise they may not be identitiable. 

 Large birds thro\'ni in imskinned should have the belly opened, to let in the alcohol fi-eely. 

 Birds may be skinned, after being in alcohol, by simply drying them : they often make fair 

 specimens. They are best withdrawn by the biU, that the " swash" of the alcohol at the 

 moment of emersion may set the plumage all one way, and hung up to dry untouched. 

 Watery moisture that may remain after evaporation of the alcohol may be dried with plaster. 



FIG.S ], 2. — VievTS of sternum and pectoral arch of the i.tarmigaii, Lagoptis alhus. reduced ; after A. New- 

 ton. 1, lateral view, with tlie bones upsiiie down ; 2, viewed from below, a, sternum or breast-bone, showing two 

 long slender lateral processes; 6, ends of sternal ribs; c, ends of bnmerus, or upper arm-bone, near the shoulder- 

 joint; rf, scapula, or shoulder-blade; e, coracoid ; /, merry-tliought, or furculum (clavicles). 



Osteological and other Preparations (figs, l-ll) While complete skeletonizing of 



a bird is a special art of some difficulty, and one that does not fall within the scope of "this 

 .treatise, I may mention two bony preparations very readily made, and susceptible of rendering 



