ON 



PRESERVING BIRDS 



FOR 



CABINETS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



Were you to pay as much attention to birds, as the pkeservino 

 sculptor does to the human frame, you would immediately — 

 see, on entering a museum, that the specimens are not 

 well done. 



This remark will not be thought severe, when you re- 

 flect that, — that which once was a bird, has probably been 

 stretched, stuffed, stiffened, and wired by the hand of a 

 common clown. Consider, likewise, how the plumage 

 must have been disordered, by too much stretching or 

 drying, and perhaps sullied, or at least deranged, by the 

 pressure of a coarse and heavy hand, — plumage which, 

 ere life had fled from within it, was accustomed to be 

 touched by nothing rougher than the dew of heaven, and 

 the pure and gentle breath of air. 



In dissecting, three things are necessary to ensure Dissecting, 

 success ; viz. a penknife, a hand not coarse or clumsy, 

 and practice. The first will furnish you with the means j 

 the second will enable you to dissect ; and the third 



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