ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 



313 



the part in water, without soap, and keep gently agitating Preserving 



Birds. 



the feathers, with your fingers, till they are quite dry. Were 



you to wash them, and leave them to dry by themselves, 

 they would have a very mean and shrivelled appearance. 

 In the act of skinning a bird, you must either have it ^.^^ 



o ' J ning the 



upon a table, or upon your knee. Probably, you will 

 prefer your knee ; because, when you cross one knee over 

 the other, and have the bird upon the uppermost, you 

 can raise it to your eye, or loAver it, at pleasure, by means 

 of the foot on the ground, and then your knee will always 

 move in unison with your body, by Avhich much stooping 

 will be avoided and lassitude prevented. 



With these precautionary hints in mind, we will now 

 proceed to dissect a bird. Suppose we take a hawk. 

 The little birds will thank us, with a song for his death, 

 for he has oppressed them sorely ; and in size he is just 

 the thing. His skin is also pretty tougli, and the feathers 

 adhere to it. 



We will put close by us a little bottle of the solution of 

 corrosive sublhnate in alcohol ; also a stick like a common 

 knitting needle, and a handful or two of cotton. Now 

 fill the mouth and nostrils of the bird with cotton, and 

 place it upon your knee on its back, with its head point- 

 ing to your left shoulder. Take hold of the knife with 

 your two first fingers and thumb, the edge upwards. You 

 must not keep the point of the knife perpendicular to the 

 body of the bird; because, were you to hold it so, you 



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