SEC. V REGISTRATION AND LABELLING 37 



Directions for Measurement may be inserted here, as this 

 matter pertains rightfully to the recording of specimens. The 

 following instructions apply not only to length and extent, but to 

 the principal other dimensions, which may be taken at any time. 

 For large birds, a tape-line showing inches and fourths will do ; for 

 smaller ones, a foot-rule graduated for inches and eighths, or better, 

 decimals to hundredths, must be used ; and for all nice measurements 

 the dividers are indispensable. Length, : Distance between the tip 

 of the bill and end of the longest tail-feather. Lay the bird on its 

 back on the ruler on a table ; take hold of the bill with one hand 

 and of both legs with the other ; pull with reasonable force to get 

 the curve all out of the neck ; hold the bird thus with the tip of 

 the bill flush with one end of the ruler, and see where the end of 

 the tail points. Put the tape-line in place of the ruler, in the same 

 way, for larger birds. JExtent : Distance between the tips of the 

 outspread wings. They must be fully outstretched, with the bird 

 on its back, crosswise on the ruler, its bill pointing to your 

 breast. Take hold of right and left metacarpus with the thumb and 

 forefinger of your left and right hand respectively, stretch with 

 reasonable force, getting one wing-tip flush with one end of the 

 ruler, and see how far the other wing-tip reaches. With large 

 birds pull as hard as you please, and use the table, floor, or side of 

 the room ; mark the points and apply tape-line. Length of wing : 

 Distance fropi the carpal angle formed at the bend of the wing to 

 the end of the longest primary. Take it with compasses for small 

 birds. In birds with a convex wing, do not lay the tape-line over 

 the curve, but under the wing in a straight line. This measure- 

 ment is the one called, for short, " the wing." Length of tail : 

 Distance from the roots of the rectrices to the end of the longest one. 

 Feel for the pope's-nose ; in either a fresh or dried specimen there is 

 more or less of a palpable lump into which the tail-feathers stick. 

 Gruess as near as you can to the middle of this lump ; place the end 

 of the ruler opposite this point, and see where the tip of the longest 

 tail-feather comes. Length of hill: Some take the curve of the 

 upper mandible ; others the side of the upper mandible from the 

 feathers ; others the gape, etc. I take the chord of the culmen. 

 Place one foot of the dividers on the culmen just where the feathers 

 end ; no matter whether the culmen runs up on the forehead, or 

 the frontal feathers run out on the culmen, and no matter whether 

 the .culmen is straight or curved. Then with me the length of 

 the bill is the shortest distance from the point just indicated to the 

 tip of the upper mandible : measure it with the dividers. In a 

 straight bill of course it is the length of the culmen itself; in a 

 curved bill, however, it is quite another thing. Length of tarsus: 

 Distance between the joint of the tarsus with the leg above, and 



