304 
ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 
Pfftsei-vmg elasticity to every part of your bird; so that, when 
-perching on your finger, if you press it down with 
the other hand, it will rise again. You need not 
fear that your hawk will alter, or its colours fade. 
The alcohol has introduced the sublimate into eveiy 
part and pore of the skin, quite to the roots of 
the feathers. Its use is two-fold. 1st. It has 
totally prevented all tendency to putrefaction; and 
thus a sound skin has attached itself to the roots of 
the feathers. You may take hold of a single one, 
and from it suspend five times the weight of the 
bird. You may jerk it; it will still adhere to the 
skin, and, after repeated trials, often break short. 
2dly. As no part of the skin has escaped receiving 
particles of sublimate contained in the alcohol, 
there is not a spot exposed to the depredation of 
insects; for they will never venture to attack any 
substance which has received corrosive sublimate. 
You are aware that corrosive sublimate is the 
most fatal poison to insects that is known. It is 
antiputrescent; so is alcohol; and they are both 
colourless, of course they cannot leave a stain 
behind them. The spirit penetrates the pores of 
the skin with wonderful velocity, deposits invisible 
particles of the sublimate, and flies off. The subli¬ 
mate will not injure the skin, and nothing can 
detach it from the parts where the alcohol has 
left it.* 
* All the feathers require to be touched with the solution, in order 
that they may be preserved from the depredation of the moth. The 
surest way of proceeding is, to immerse the bird in the solution of corro¬ 
sive sublimate, and then dry it before you begin to dissect it. 
