DESTROYING BUGS—CONCLUDING ITEMS. 111 
weaker solution, one that leaves no white film, on drying, on a 
black feather, may even be brushed over the whole plumage in 
certain cases. But remember that this is a deadly poison and 
must be used with care. Specimens may be buried in coarse 
refuse tobacco leaves. One or another of these lines of de- 
fence will commonly prove successful in destroying or driving 
off mature insects, and even in stopping the ravages of the 
larve; but I doubt that any such means will kill the ‘‘nits.” 
With these we must deal otherwise; and their destruction no 
less than that of their parents is assured, if we subject them to a 
high temperature. Baking birdskins is really the only process 
that can make us feel perfectly safe. Infected specimens, along 
with suspected ones, should be subjected to a dry heat, from 
212° F. up to any degree short of singeing the plumage. This 
is readily done by putting the birds in a wooden tray in any 
oven—they must however be watched, unless you have special 
contrivances for regulating the temperature. How long a time 
is required is probably not ascertained with precision ; it will 
be well to bake for several hours. When the beetles and larve 
are found completely parched, it may be confidently believed 
that the unseen eggs are out of the hatching way forever. The 
specimens may be immediately replaced in the cabinet, after 
flipping or brushing off loosened feathers. 
§59. Two Irems. One is, that arsenic helps to keep out 
the bugs, besides preventing decay —a fact that should never 
be forgotten, and that should give sharper edge to my advice 
respecting lavish use of the substance at the outset. If it be 
true, as some state, that bugs can eat arsenic without dying, it 
is also true, that they do not relish it; and in entering a case 
of skins they will burrow by preference in those holding the 
least of it. This fact is continually exhibited in large collec- 
tions, where, if two birds be side by side, one being duly ar- 
senicized and the other not so, one will be taken and the other 
left. My second item, with its proper deduction, will form, I 
think, a fitting conclusion to this treatise. It is a fact in the 
natural history of these our pests, that they are fond of peace 
