26 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY part i 



it is dead, without watcliing the sad struggle. Large birds 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 resistance — 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 despatched 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 small bird's skull so as to compress 

 the cerebellum, which causes instant death. It is useless to compress 

 the windpipe of a bird whose wing is broken near the shoulder, for 

 the bone is hollow, and the bird can breathe through it. 



Handling Bleeding Birds. — Bleeding depends altogether upon 

 what part or organ is wounded; but, other things being equal, 

 violence of the haemorrhage is usually in direct proportion to the 

 size of the shot-hole; when mustard-seed is used it is ordinarily 

 very trifling, if it occur 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. Bleeding from the 

 mouth or nostrils is the rule when the lungs are wounded. When 

 it occurs, 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, pressure 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 recommending this, 

 but I suspect that only a few of the 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 sepa- 



