52 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 



(b) Special Processes; Complications and Accidents 



The Foregoing Method of procedure is a routine practice 

 applicable to the " general run " of birds. But there are several 

 cases requiring a modification of this process ; while several circum- 

 stances may tend to embarrass operations. The principal special 

 conditions may therefore be separately treated to advantage. 



Size. — Other things being equal, a large bird is more difficult 

 to prepare than a small one. In one case, you only need a certain 

 delicacy of touch, easily acquired and soon becoming mechanical ; 

 in the other, demand on your strength may be made, till your 

 muscles ache. It takes longer, too ; ^ I could put away a dozen 

 sparrows in the time I should spend over an eagle ; and I would 

 rather undertake a hundred humming-birds than one ostrich. For 

 large birds, say anything from a hen-hawk upward, various special 

 manipulations I have directed may be forgone, while however you 

 observe their general drift and intent. You may open the bird as 

 directed, or, turning it tail to you, cut with a knife.^ Forceps are 

 rarely required ; there is not much that is too small to be taken in 

 hand. As soon as the tail is divided, hang up the bird by the 



that Le has seldom purchased a birdskin, never sold one in his life, and for some 

 years has owned none. Excepting a few given to friends, his ornithological specimens, 

 as well as those in other departments of natural history, have always been presented 

 to the United States Government, and deposited in the national collection at 

 Washington. 9th September 1889.] 



^ The reader may be curious to know something of the statistics on this score — 

 how long it ought to take him to prepare an ordinary skin. He can scarcely imagine, 

 from his iirst tedious operations, how expert he may become, not only in beauty of 

 result, but in rapidity of execution. I have seen taxidermists make good small skins 

 at the rate of ten an hour ; but this is extraordinary. The quickest work I ever did 

 myself was eight an hour, or an average of seven and a half minutes apiece, and fairly 

 good skins. But I picked my birds, all small ones, well shot, labelled, measmed, 

 and plugged beforehand, so that the rate of work was exceptional, besides including 

 only the actual manipulations from first cut to laying away. No one averages eight 

 birds an hour, even excluding the necessary preliminaries of cleansing, plugging, etc 

 Four birds an hour, everything included, is good work. A very eminent ornithologist 

 of America, and an expert taxidermist, once laid a whimsical wager that he would 

 skin and stuff a bird before a certain friend of his could pick all the feathers off a 

 specimen of the same kind. I forget the time, but he won, and his friend ate crow, 

 literally, that night. 



^ Certain among larger birds are often opened elsewhere than along the belly, 

 with what advantage I cannot say from my own experience. Various water-bii'ds, 

 such as loons, grebes, auks, gulls, and ducks (in fact any swimming-bird with dense 

 under plumage), may be opened along the side by a cut under the wings from the 

 shoulder over the hip to the rump ; the cut is completely hidden by the make-up, 

 and the plumage is never ruffled. But I see no necessity for this ; for, as a rule, the 

 belly-opening can be completely effaced with due care, though a very greasy bird 

 with white under plumage generally stains where opened, in spite of every precaution. 

 Such birds as loons, grebes, cormorants, and penguins are often opened by a cut 

 across the fundament from one leg to the other ; their conformation in fact suggests 

 and favours this operation. I have often seen water-birds slit down the back ; but I 

 consider it poor practice. 



