
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 afford osteological material. Alcohol is 
the liquid usually employed and, of all the various articles 
recommended, seems to answer best on the whole. I 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 
wooden boxes, made to leave a little room for the lid wrench, 
muslin bags for doing up separate parcels, parchment for 
labels, ete. 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 They are best withdrawn by the 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 

