ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 



325 



volucris." If your early performance should not corres- Preserving 



Birds. 



pond with your expectations, do not let that cast you 



down. You cannot become an adept all at once. The 

 poor hawk itself, which you have just been dissecting, 

 waited to be fledged, before it durst rise on expanded 

 pinion ; and had parental aid, and frequent practice, ere 

 it could soar with safety and ease beyond the sight of 

 man. 



Little more remains to be added, except that what has 

 been penned down with regard to birds, may be applied, 

 in some measure, to serpents, insects, and four-footed 

 animals. 



Should you find these instructions too tedious, let the 

 wish to give you every information plead in their defence. 

 They might have been shorter ; but Horace says, by 

 labouring to be brief you become obscure. 



If, by their means, you should be enabled to procure 

 specimens from foreign parts in better preservation than 

 usual, so that the naturalist may have it in his power to 

 give a more perfect description of them than has hitherto 

 been the case ; should they cause any unknown species to 

 be brought into public view, and thus add a little more to 

 the page of natural history, it will please me much. But 

 should they, unfortunately, tend to cause a wanton 

 expense of life ; should they tempt you to shoot the pretty 

 songster warbling near your door, or destroy the mother. 



