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Drying Skins of Birds and Small Mammals 
Small skins will usually dry very well in a few days in a normal living 
temperature, and where stove or furnace heat is available they will dry 
fairly rapidly if placed on shelves or suspended in trays (preferably with 
wire screen bottoms) where warm air can circulate freely. Specimens 
should not be exposed to hot sunshine or placed where the heat is so great 
that it feels uncomfortable to the hand. 
Along the seacoast, particularly in the Arctic regions, it is often a 
problem to dry skins during prolonged periods of damp or foggy weather, 
especially if the collector is living in a tent. On a vessel the collector may 
be able to dry his specimens in the fiddley or hang them over the galley 
stove. The writer has had some success in drying specimens in a tent by 
using a “Cambridge tin,” a tin case with sliding trays and a tight cover 
fitting into grooves and secured with clamps. The Cambridge tin may 
be left open and set near the camp stove as a sort of drying oven, but needs 
constant watching and adjustment to prevent it from becoming overheated. 
The Cambridge tin, or any sealed tin box enclosed in a wooden case for 
protection, has some use in shipping equipment that must be kept dry, 
such as photographic films, chemicals, etc., and is valuable for storing or 
shipping thoroughly dry specimens, because mice and insect pests are 
effectively kept out. On the whole, the Cambridge tin is unhandy for a 
collecting box in the field and the screen-windowed box (Figure 1) is much 
preferable. 
If skins are not thoroughly dried before packing, as is often the case 
in damp weather, the packing case should be painted inside with carbolic 
acid or have plenty of naphthaline crystals scattered over the specimens. 
A coating of greenish or bluish mould may form on feet and bills as well 
as on feathers or fur of imperfectly dried specimens. If the process of 
growth has not gone too far the mould may usually be wiped off with a 
damp cloth and the specimen dried and dusted clean. Sponging with 
a bit of cloth dipped in alcohol, gasoline, or benzene will aid in killing 
mould in wrinkles and crevices. Mould only occurs on specimens that 
have been kept for a time in a damp place, or on infected specimens 
that have been put into tight cases before being thoroughly dried. In 
most parts of Canada this does not cause the serious difficulties met with 
in the more humid parts of the tropics. 
Packing Specimens 
Under ordinary circumstances it is better to pack specimens in wooden 
boxes or crates through which there is some circulation of air. Mice and 
the larger insects may be kept out by lining the packing cases with cheap 
wire fly screen, or by tacking strips of screen over the cracks. A liberal 
quantity of naphthaline sprinkled on the specimens and in the bpttom of 
the box will usually keep out the pests, whether of animal life or of 
vegetable fungi. Corrugated fibre-board cartons are coming into general 
use, and are more easily trimmed to size needed. 
