BIRDS. 
catrfed themto be examined by able chemifts; but nothing 
more could be obferved, than that the folution prefented 
a weak gum with a difagrecabie tafte, which probably 
might be of feme ufe in flight indifpofitions of the bread, 
and perhaps operates'as a (linuilus to venery, as the in- 
lefts of which they are compounded may probably be a 
fpecics of cantharides. Be this as it may, the Chinefc are 
remarkably fond of them. After being foaked and well 
cleaned, they put them, along with a fat capon or a duck, 
into an earthen pot clofely covered, and fuffer them to boil 
for feveral hours over a flow fire, which they call tinmen: 
and on account of this addition the whole difli acquires a 
high lufeious flavour. The trade carried on with thefe 
nefts was fome years not fo conlidera'ole, but of late it has 
much increafed. The high price of them in China, which 
is ftill advancing, makes Batavia the principal mart for 
this commodity, which, as the company have now given 
it up, is employed very advantageoufly by the inhabitants 
to leflen the prejudicial exportation of fpecie. For the 
natural hiftory of this fpecies of fwallow, fee the article 
IIirundo. 
Migration of BIRDS. See Migration. 
PiBures of Birds. Mr. Edwards, in his Natural Hif¬ 
tory of Birds, vol. ii. p. 119, deferibesa method of making 
piftures of birds with their natural feathers. Fil'd, take 
a thin board, orpannel of deal, or wainfeot well feafoned, 
that it may not warp ; then fmoothly pafte on it white 
paper, and let it dry ; and, if the wood calls its colour 
through, you may pafte on a fecond paper, and it will be 
whiter : let the fecond paper dry ; then get ready any 
bird that you would reprefent, and draw it as exaft as may 
be on the papered pannel, of its natural fize (middle fized 
birds are bell for this work); then paint what ground¬ 
work, or tree, or other thing, you defign to fet your bird 
on, together with the bill and legs of the bird jn water 
•colours, leaving the bird to be covered with its own na¬ 
tural feathers. You mull firft prepare the part to be 
feathered, by laying on pretty thick gum Arabic, diflolved 
in water, with a large hair-pencil : then lay the pannel 
flat, and let it dry hard ; and when dry, cover it with 
the gum-water a fecond time, and let it dry ; and then a 
third, in cafe you do not find it lie with a good body on 
the paper; the thicknefs of a fliilling, when dried hard, 
is fufficient. When your piece is thus prepared, take the 
feathers off" from the bird as you ufe them ; beginning al¬ 
ways at the tail and points of the wing, and working up¬ 
wards to the head ; obferving to cover that part of your 
•drawing with the feather that you take from the fame part 
in your bird, letting them £dl one over another in their 
•natural order. You mult prepare your feathers by cut¬ 
ting off the downy part that is about their bottoms ; and 
the larger feathers mud have the infides_ of their fhafts 
fhaved.off with a knife to make them lie flat; the quills 
of the wings mud have their inner webs clipped off, fo 
that in laying them the gum may hold them by their 
Shafts. When you begin to lay them, take a pair of fteel 
pliers to hold the feathers in ; and have fome gum-water, 
not too thin, and a large pencil, ready to moiften the gum¬ 
med ground-work by little and little as you work it: then 
lay your feathers on the moiflened parts, which mud not 
be watery, but fufliciently clammy to hold the feathers. 
When you have wholly covered the bird with its feathers, 
you nuift, with a little thick gum, flick on a piece of paper 
cut round, of the bignefs and in the place of the eye, 
which you mull colour like the eye of the bird. When 
the whole is dry, drefs the feathers round the outline that 
may chance to flare a little, and rectify what may be 
mended in any other part: then lay a fheet of clean paper 
on it : and on that a heavy book, or fome fuch thing, to 
prefs it ; after which it may be preferved in a frame co¬ 
vered with a glafs, and fecured from the dull. 
» Prefervation of Birds. Thofe who are curious in col¬ 
lecting birds have a method of preferving them from pu¬ 
trefaction, fo as to retain their natural form and pofition, 
as well as the beauty of their colours and plumage. A 
Vol. III. No. 116. 
good antifeptic for animal fubflances has been much in¬ 
quired after; as for want of it many curious animals, and 
birds particularly, come to our hands in a very imperfeft 
fiate : fome from foreign parts entirely mifearry, and others 
of the fined plumage are devoured by infeCts. Various 
methods of prefervation, therefore, have been deferibed ; 
but the following, by Dr. Lettfom, teems to be the mod 
complete. 
“ After opening the bird by a longitudinal incifion front 
the bread to the vent; diffedting the flcfhy parts from 
the bones ; and removing the entrails, eyes, brains, and 
tongue ; the cavities and infide of the flein are to be 
fprinkled with the powders mentioned below; the eyes 
are then to be inferted, and the head fluffed with cotton or 
tow: in the next place, a wire is to be palled down the 
throat through one of the noftrils, and fixed into the bread: 
bone : wires are alfo to be introduced through the feet, 
up the legs and thighs, and inferted into the fame 
bone; next, fill the body with cotton to its natural fize, 
and few the Ikin over it : the attitude is lalily to be at¬ 
tended to ;‘ and, in whatever pofition the fubjeft is placed 
to dry, that fame pofition will be retained afterwards. The 
drying compound is as follows : Corrofi ve fnblimate, quar¬ 
ter of a pound; pulverized nitre, half a pound; alum 
burnt, quarter of a pound; flowers of fulphur, half a 
pound; camphor, quarter of a pound ; black pepper, one 
pound; tobacco, ground coat'fe, one pound; mix the 
whole together, and keep it in a glafs well flopped clofe. 
Small birds may be preferved in brandy, rum, arrack, or 
firft runnings; though in this manner the colour of the 
plumage is liable to be extracted by the fpirit. Large 
fea-fowl have thick ftrong Ikins, and fuch may be (kinned; 
the tail, claws, head, and feet, are carefully to be pre¬ 
ferved, and the plumage ftained as little as poffible with 
blood. The infide of the (kin may be fluffed as recom¬ 
mended above. 
Kuckahn obferves, Phil. Tranf. vol. lx. p. 319, that 
baking is not only ufeful in frefli prefervations, but will 
alfo be of very great fervice to old ones, deftroying the 
eggs of infeCts ; and it fliould be a conftant practice once 
in two or three years to bake them over again, and to 
have the cafes frefti waffled with camphorated fpirit, or the 
fublimate folution, which would not only preferve collec¬ 
tions from decay much longer, but alfo keep them fweet. 
One of the bed prefervatives, is to procure clofe boxes, 
well glazed : with fuch a precaution they may be kept in 
in a dry room many years without the leaft appearance of 
injury. Baking is apt to crimp and injure the plumage, 
unlefs great care be tifed ; and therefore the proper de¬ 
gree of heat ftiould be afeertained by means of a feather 
before fuch fubjeCts are baked. When the fubjeCt is to 
be kept for fome time in a hot climate, it fliould be fe¬ 
cured in a box filled with tow, oakum, or tobacco, well 
fprinkled with the fublimate folution. 
In Guiana, the number and variety of beautiful birds 
is fo great, that feveral perfons in the colony advantage- 
oufly'employ themfelves, with their Haves and dependants, 
in killing and preferving thele animals for the cabinets of 
raturalifts in different parts of Europe. The method of 
doing this, as related by Mr. Bancroft in ins Natural Hif¬ 
tory of Guiana, is, “ to put the bird which is,to be pre¬ 
ferved in a proper veflel, and cover him w;th high wines, 
or the firft running of the diftillation of rum. In this 
fpirit he is fuflered to remain for twenty-four or forty- 
eight hours, or longer, according to his fize, till it lias 
penetrated through every part of his body. When this 
is done, the bird is taken out; and his feathers, which 
are no ways changed by this immerfion, are placed fmooth 
and regular. It is then put into a machine, made for the 
purpofe, among a number of others, and its head, feet, 
wings, tail, See. are placed exactly agreeable to life. la 
this°pofition they are all placed in an oven, very mode¬ 
rately heated, where they are flowly dried3 and will ever 
after retain their natural pofition, without danger of pit. 
trefaftion.” v 
