- SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD-WORK. 17 
to kill them as quickly and as painlessly as possible, without injuring the plumage. This is 
to be accomplished, with all small birds, by suffocation. The respiration and circulation of 
birds is very active, and most of them die in a few moments if the lungs are so compressed 
that they cannot breathe. Squeeze the bird tightly across the chest, under the wings, thumb 
on one side, middle finger on the other, forefinger pressed in the hollow at the root of the neck, 
between the forks of the merrythought. Press firmly, hard enough to fix the chest immovably 
and compress the lungs, but not to break in the ribs. The bird will make vigorous but ineffect- 
ual efforts to breathe, when the muscles will contract spasmodically ; but in a moment more, 
the system relaxes with a painful shiver, light fades from the eyes, and the lids close. I 
assure you, it will make you wince the first few times; you had better habitually hold the 
poor creature behind you. You can tell by its limp feel and motionlessness when it is dead, 
without watching the sad struggle. Large birds obviously cannot be dealt with in this 
way; I would as soon attempt to throttle a dog as a loon, for instance, upon which all the 
pressure you can give makes no sensible impression. A winged hawk, again, will throw itself 
on its back as you come up, and show such good fight with beak and talons, that you may be 
quite severely scratched in the encounter: meanwhile the struggling bird may be bespattering 
its plumage with blood. In such a case — in any case of a large bird making decided resist- 
ance —I think it best to step back a few paces and settle the matter with a light charge of 
" mustard-seed. Any large bird once secured may be speedily dispatched by stabbing to the 
heart with some slender instrument thrust in under the wing — care must be taken too about 
the bleeding ; or, it may be instantly killed by piercing the brain with a knife introduced into 
the mouth and driven upward and obliquely backward from the palate. The latter method is 
preferable as it leaves no outward sign and causes no bleeding to speak of. With your thumb, 
you may indent the back part of a bird’s skull so as to compress the cerebellum; if you can 
get deep enough in, without materially nee the plumage, or breaking the skin, the 
method is unobjectionable. 
Handling Bleeding Birds.— Bleeding depends altogether upon the part or organ 
wounded ; but other things being equal, violence of the hemorrhage is usually in direct pro- 
portion to the size of the shot-hole ; when mustard-seed is used it is ordinarily very trifling, if it 
oceur at all. Blood flows oftener from the orifice of exit of a shot, than from the wound of 
entrance, for the latter is usually plugged with a little wad of feathers drivenin. Bleeding from 
the mouth or nostrils is the rule when the lungs are wounded. When it occcurs, hold up the 
bird by the feet, and let it drip; a general squeeze of the body in that position will facilitate 
the drainage. In general, hold a bird so that a bleeding place is most dependent; then, pres- 
sure about the part will help the flow. A “gob” of blood, which is simply a forming clot, 
on the plumage may often be dexterously flipped almost clean away with a snap of the finger. 
It is first-rate practice to take cotton and forceps into the field to plug up shot-holes, and stop 
the mouth and nostrils and vent on the spot. I follow the custom of the books in recommend- 
ing this, but I will confess I have rarely done it myself, and I suspect that only a few of our 
most leisurely and elegant collectors do so habitually. Shot-holes may be found by gently 
raising the feathers, or blowing them aside; you can of course get only a tiny plug into the 
wound itself, but it should be one end of a sizable pledget, the rest lying fluffy among the 
feathers. In stopping the mouth or vent, ram the fluff of cotton, entirely inside. You cannot 
conveniently stop up the nostrils of small birds separately ; but take a light cylinder of cotton, 
lay it transversely across the base of the upper mandible, closely covering the nostrils, and 
confine it there by tucking each end tightly into the corner of the mouth. In default of such 
nice fixing as this, a pinch of dry loam pressed on a bleeding spot will plaster itself there and 
stop further mischief. Never try to wipe off fresh blood that has already wetted the plumage ; 
you will only make matters worse. Let it dry on, and then — but the treatment of blood- 
stains, and other soilings of plumage, is given beyond. 
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