ON 
PRESERVING BIRDS 
FOR 
CABINETS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
Were you to pay as much attention to birds, as the Preserving 
sculptor does to the human frame, you would imme-- 
diately see, on entering a museum, that the specimens 
are not well done. 
This remark will not be thought severe, when you 
reflect that,—that which once was a bird, has pro¬ 
bably been stretched, stuffed, stiffened, and wired by 
the hand of a common clown. Consider, likewise, 
how the plumage must have been disordered, by too 
much stretching or drying, and perhaps sullied, or 
at least deranged, by the pressure of a coarse and 
heavy hand,—plumage which, ere life had fled from 
within it, was accustomed to be touched by nothing 
rougher than the dew of heaven, and the pure and 
gentle breath of air. <■ 
In dissecting, three things are necessary to ensure Dissect- 
success; viz. a penknife, a hand not coarse or mg ' 
clumsy, and practice. The first will furnish you 
u 
