Preserve, s. Fruit preserved whole in sugar; a place set apart for breeding and protecting game.
To preserve Birds.—Large birds should be carefully skinned; the head, tail, and feet, left entire. The skin may then be either put into a vessel of spirits, or rubbed well on the inside with the following mixture:—One pound of salt, four ounces of alum, and two ounces of pepper, pounded together. Small birds may be thus treated:—Take out the entrails, open a passage to the brain, which should be scooped out through the mouth; introduce into the cavities of the skull and the whole body some of the above mixture, putting it also through the gullet and entire length of the neck; hang the bird in a cool, airy place, first by the feet, that the body may be impregnated by the salts, and afterwards by a thread through the under mandible of the bill, till it appears to be sweet; then expose it in the sun, or near a fire. After it is well dried, clean out what remains loose of the mixture, and fill the cavity of the body with wool, oakum, or any soft substance.
If you shoot a curious bird, and have not the means of getting it stuffed while fresh, you may preserve the skin of it for many months by putting therein dry tow and powdered ginger. May and June are the only months that you need fear the moth; and just then cedar shavings or camphor would be a good addition. To skin a bird, open him either on one side or down the back.
To send grouse any distance, put some pepper to the parts where they have been shot, as well as into their mouths, and then pack them carefully, separated from each other, and keep as air tight as possible in boxes of hops.—Hawker.
Prick, v. To pierce with a small puncture; to erect with an acuminated point; to set up the ears; to animate by a puncture or mark; to spur, to goad.
Pricket, s. A buck in his second year.
Prickle, s. A small sharp point.
Prickly, a. Full of sharp points.