DISAGREEABLE WORK. 
2 / 
To remove the skin of a bird, without rumpling 
or soiling its plumage, requires a very skilful use 
of both instruments and fingers. A still more 
^delicate task, in young birds, is the removal of 
the flesh from the bones that should be preserved, 
especially where they are exceedingly thin and 
liable to injury, as in the case of the skull. 
In ordinary birds, when dressed as soon as 
killed, the task is not offensive ; but many speci- 
mens which she bought, or received as contribu- 
tions to her scheme, did not reach her before 
decomposition had begun, and occasionally one 
was found by nature so depraved, that only a 
lover-like devotion to science could have tempted 
any one to prepare it for mounting. 
To this latter class emphatically belongs the 
Turkey Buzzard. He is undoubtedly a useful 
bird, for do we not read of his supplying the 
place, and doing the work, of entire Boards of 
Health, in many Southern villages ? 
He is not wholly unattractive — when viewed 
from a distance ! 
It’s true, his coat usually seems to need re-dye- 
ing; but then that is suggestive of long hours 
spent in the scorching sun, in the discharge of 
his official duties. One has no right to complain 
if the glossy black of a public servant’s coat does 
get a little rusty. It is to be expected. His is 
black enough when it is new. 
