﻿276 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



may be changed, and they may be raised higher or 

 lower, as circumstances require. The glass front should 

 be easily taken off; or it may be hung on hinges, the 

 sides being lined with felt or baize, so that as little air 

 or dust can enter as possible. It is surprising how 

 closely birds of a moderate size may be arranged on 

 this plan without any appearance of confusion, each 

 specimen being immediately accessible, and capable of 

 being taken out singly in three minutes. Of two cases 

 now before us, one, containing a large proportion of 

 small birds, has seventy-five specimens ; the other, 

 chiefly filled with thrushes, starlings, and other middle- 

 sized birds, contains fifty-two. The dimensions of 

 each case are three feet eleven inches high, three feet 

 one inch wide, and eleven inches deep. 



(2z8.) But even the above method of arranging a 

 large collection, admirable as it is, presents some serious 

 obstacles to a private individual, no less than to socie- 

 ties whose funds are not very ample. It requires great 

 space, and a large pecuniary expenditure. Rooms or 

 galleries must be devoted to containing cases; and 

 the cost of mounting, independent of the cases them- 

 selves, will generally be found, in a large collection, to 

 average nearly two thirds the original cost of the speci- 

 mens. The great and constant trouble, also, of opening 

 glass fronts whenever a bird is to be examined, is no 

 small hinderance to the scientific author, who often 

 finds it necessary to be able to handle a specimen, turn 

 it about, open its wings or tail, and discompose in some 

 measure that exact arrangement of the feathers which 

 constitutes the finishing of a mounted specimen. All 

 these, as we before observed, are serious inconveniences 

 to all but very wealthy individuals, who can build 

 galleries and rooms, and to whom the expense of mount- 

 ing is no object. 



(229.) The last and best method of arranging birds 

 is by leaving them, as it is technically called, u in their 

 skins." It is now near twenty years since we began 

 this plan, to the great surprise and disapprobation of 



