A plain wall case with glass front and a painted or decorated background will give the necessary protection with the least expense. For small bird groups, and singles and pairs of game birds, the oval convex glasses probably present the finest appearance. The backgrounds for these may be either plush or wood panels or hand painted, and any style of picture framing may be used. These are made in several sizes, listing at $2.00 to $8.00 each without backgrounds or frames. This cost has probably prevented their more common use.
There is on the market a papier mache background also adapted to any picture frame, called the "concave dust proof case." This has the flat face glass of the old style wall case, but with the square corners and much of the weight eliminated. Any of these styles of wall cases may be placed on shelves as well as hung on the wall like pictures, at once preventing breakage and becoming valuable decorations.
Special cases are often built (as in museums) for large and valuable mounted specimens. Of these the top and at least three sides should be of glass. The preparing and placing of the accessories in some large museum cases have required an unbelievable amount of time and expense to attain the desired natural appearance of the mounting.
CHAPTER V.
FIELD WORK, COLLECTING.
While it is unlikely that many readers of this book will undertake the collection of natural history specimens in any great numbers or as a special business, a few words on the subject may not be amiss.
It is well to bear in mind that the better the condition of the specimen when it first comes to hand, the greater will be our chances of success in properly preserving it. A small bird shot with a rifle is not worth bothering with unless excessively rare, and a fur bearer which the dogs have been allowed to maul and chew is very difficult to put in satisfactory condition.
One rule of the collector in the field is to shoot each specimen with the smallest possible charge of shot and powder which will kill it. I speak of shooting, as probably three-fourths of the objects mounted by the average taxidermist have been killed with fire arms.
Of late years a number of collector's guns have been put out by the arms makers, though any good small bore shotgun will answer for collecting all of our small and medium sized American birds and mammals. Some of these guns of about .44 cal. are exceedingly accurate and reliable performers.
In one case this small bore shotgun has been combined with a rifle, and the light weight and portability of this little arm makes it about the last word in guns for collecting all small specimens.