98 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 



• 



always examined by dissection on the spot. In fact, a certain 

 small proportion of the birds of any protracted or otherwise 

 "heavy" collecting may be preferably and very profitably pre- 

 served in this way. Specimens in too poor plumage to be 

 ■worth skinning may be thus utilized ; so may the bodies of 

 skinned birds, which, although necessarily defective, retain all 

 the viscera, and also afibrd osteological material. Alcohol is , 

 the liquid usually employed and, of all the various articles 

 recommended, seems to answer best on the whole. 1 have 

 used a very weak solution of chloride of zinc with excellent 

 results ; it should not be strong enough to show the slightest 

 turbidity. As glass bottles are liable to break when travelling, 

 do not fit corners, and offer practical annoyance about corkage ; 

 rectangular metal cans, preferably of copper, with screw-lid 

 opening, are advisable. They are to be set in small, strong 

 vrooden boxes, made to leave a little room for the lid wrench, 

 muslin bags for doing up separate parcels, parchment for 

 labels, etc. Unoccupied space in the cans should be filled with 

 tow or a similar substance, to prevent the specimens from 

 swashing about. Labelling should be on parchment : the writ- 

 ing should be perfectly dry before immersion : india-ink is the 

 best. Skinned bodies should be numbered to correspond with 

 the dried skin from which taken ; otherwise they may not be 

 identifiable. Large birds thrown in unskinned should have 

 the belly opened, to let in the alcohol freely. Birds may be 

 skinned, after being in alcohol, by simply drying them : they 

 often make fair specimens. They are best withdrawn by the 

 bill, that the "swash" of the alcohol at the moment of emer- 

 sion may set the plumage all one way, and hung up to dry.^ 

 untouched. Watery moisture that may remain after evapora- 

 tion of the alcohol may be dried with plaster. 



§52. Osteological preparations. "While complete skele- 

 tonizing of a bird is a special art of some difficulty, and one 

 that does not fall within the scope of this treatise, I may prop- 

 erly mention two bony preparations very readily made, and 

 susceptible of rendering ornithology essential service. I refer 



