The mammifers of a size small enough to be enclosed in a jar or cask, should be put in alcohol. Those that are too large to preserve in this manner should be skinned, and care should be taken to send with the skin the feet and head, with the brain taken out, or if that cannot be done, the jaws, at least, should be sent. In preparing the head, care should be taken not to damage the skull. The brain can be extracted with care without increasing the occipital hole.
We shall speak, further on, of the means to be employed and the precautions to be taken for the preservation of the skins and for that of animals placed in alchool.
When the skeleton of the animals can be joined to the skin, a great service will be rendered to science. The officers can entrust with this care the surgeons of the ships, for whom this operation will be easy.
It is not necessary that the skeletons should be set up. After having boiled the bones, taken of the flesh and dried them well, all those of the same animal should be put in a cloth-sack with moss, sea-weed, rolls of paper, or some other soft and dry matter that they may not rub one agains the other. Those that are very frail should be enveloped with paper and care should be taken not to lose any.
Hunters ought to take care to proportion their shot to the size of the birds, so as not to injure them. As soon as a bird is killed, the blood should be staunched as soon as possible, and a little cotton placed in the bill and nostrils of the bird, so that the blood that comes out may not injure the feathers, especially those of the head. If blood has been spilt on the feathers, dust should be put on them and renewed until they are dry; they can be made bright by rubbing them lightly between the fingers. After the bird is cold and the blood coagulated, it should be taken by the claws and tail, to place it in a bein of paper; these beins are arranged in a box, so that the feathers may not rub.
Birds should be skinned like quadrupeds, and care should be taken to preserve with the same precautions the bills and heads. Birds should be skinned more promptly than quadrupeds, because as soon as putrefactions begins, the feathers fall off. In opening the skin on the belly, care should be taken to separate the feathers so that they be not injured. Plaster or dust should always be put on the skin, in order to thoroughly absorb the moisture. The coccygis should be left with the skin; without this, the feathers of the tail are in danger of falling off. It will be the same with the bones of the extremities of the wings. If the bird has a fleshy crest, the head should be preserved in alcohol. When there are several specimens of the same class, it will always be useful to send one in this liquor.
It is desirable to procure, at the same time, the male and female, and specimens of the same kind, some young, others old, birds differing much according to their age. It is well to have also the eggs and nests. To preserve the eggs, a little hole is made at both ends, they are emptied and packed in bran or very fine dust. Care should be taken to indicate by numbers corresponding to those of the skin that laid them. Without this, these sorts of collections are useless. The same precaution should be taken with the nests, which should always be packed in a different box from the eggs.
The skeleton of birds too large to be put in liquor should be sent, if possible.
It is useless to stuff birds. They take up too much room; and this operation, which can only be well done by experienced persons, it is better to postpone till they arrive at the place of their destination. It is enough that the skins be prepared and well preserved.
After having pointed out, in a general manner, what would enrich our collections, we think it necessary to specify the animals, whose existence is known, which the museum is without, or has not in good order, or desires to procure.