THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT. 113 



object of my walk, and held in my hand my first 



" Blue-throat." It was the white-spotted species, 



and I afterwards saw another, and got it too, but 



no female bird did I see ; they were, apparently, 



never in evidence. So with joy in my heart that, 



within twenty-four hours, my ornithological prizes 



would be in the hands of a celebrated taxidermist 



in Vienna, whose atelier we were to seek on the 



ensuing day, and with the good wishes of our 



Hungarian friends ringing in our ears, we started 



for the Austrian capital. Alas for human hopes ! 



My birds, preserved on the journey with so much 



care, reached me some months after. I had 



counted on skins such as our American brethren 



prepare, "things of beauty and a joy for ever," 



but I was destined to have the fact once more 



brought home to me, that a good "mounter" of 



birds does not necessarily make a good " skin " 



for Museum purposes. Never did such a ragged 



regiment of specimens enter the doors of the 



British Museum — from Europe at least. My 



beautiful Night- Herons were being eaten by 



Dermestes, that destructive little beetle which is 



the bane of all collections, and the whole of the 



skins had to be put into " quarantine " before a 



8 



