METHODS OF CARING FOR STUDY SKINS OF BIRDS 
The topic I have chosen might be thought long ago exhausted’ 
Examination of the eight volumes of the Proceedings of this Associa¬ 
tion, however, fails to disclose previous mention of many of the 
problems involved. 
Whether or not the special interest of any museum lies in the field 
of ornithology, bird skins, of all natural history objects, inevitably 
find a place among its possessions. The relatively large number of 
amateurs who collect birds almost guarantees that each newly started 
museum shall soon receive by gift or bequest, irrespective of its own 
desires, collections in this field. It becomes the duty of the institu¬ 
tion to care for this sort of material, not only because of responsibility 
to donors, but because, as I most earnestly believe, bird skins con¬ 
stitute a valuable part of every museum’s equipment on account of 
their research and educational usefulness. Practically every museum 
administrator has to deal with the bird skin problem, and it deserves 
thoughtful consideration. 
The care required in preserving a collection of bird skins and in 
making them available for use is really not great in amount; but 
it is of a particular kind. Our experience in the California Museum 
of Vertebrate Zoology, in gathering and housing some 35,000 bird 
skins within the past seven years, has brought about the revision of 
long-standing customs with regard to the handling of bird skins, 
