﻿278 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



cumstance which entirely takes off the freshness and 

 brilliancy of birds in the London collections in three or 

 four years), and ready, with a moment's trouble, to be 

 handled and examined. To each specimen a strip of 

 card is attached, with the name, &c, written thereon, 

 and tucked beneath the wing. A regular inspection is 

 made three or four times a year : if any injury by in- 

 sects is observed, the specimen is taken out and placed in 

 quarantine ; a box strongly impregnated by camphor, or 

 the oven, performs this office : and in this manner have 

 birds, collected near twenty years ago, retained all the 

 beauty and freshness they possessed on the day of their 

 death. 



