Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Preservation of Birds

Preservation of Birds. Various methods have been attempted by naturalists, to preserve animal substances from putrefaction; but, from the want of a proper antiseptic, many curious animals, and particularly birds from foreign parts, are imported in a very imperfect state. Ths following process appears to be the most easy and effectual:

After opening the bird, by a longitudinal incision from the breast to the vent, dissecting the fleshy parts from the bones, and removing the entrails, eyes, brains, and tongue, the cavities, and inside of the skin are to be sprinkled with the following powders: Take of corrosive sublimate 1/4lb. pulverized nitre 1/2lb. burnt alum 1/4lb. flowers of sulphur 1/2lb. camphor 1/4lb. black pepper, and coarsely ground tobacco, one pound each; mix the ingredients well together, and keep them in a glass vessel closely stopped. First insert the eyes, and stuff the head with cotton or tow; then pass a wire down the throat, through one of the nostrils, and fix it into the breast-bone: wires are likewise to be introduced through the feet, up the legs and thighs, and fastened into the same bone; the body is afterwards stuffed with cotton to its natural size, and the skin sewed over it. In whatever position the bird is placed to dry, the same will afterwards be retained.

Small birds may be preserved in brandy, rum, arrack, or first runnings; but, by these means, the colour of the plumage is liable to be extracted by the spirit. Large sea-fowl have thick strong skins, and such may be skinned; the tail, claws, head, and feet, are to be carefully preserved, and the plumage stained as little as possible with blood. The inside of the skin may be stuffed as recommended above.

Mr. Bancroft, in his Natural History of Guiana, says, that several persons in the colony are advantageously employed in preserving a variety of beautiful birds for the cabinets of European naturalists. Their method is, to put the bird in a proper vessel, and cover it with strong wine, or the first running of the distillation of rum, in which it remains for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, till the liquor has penetrated every part of its body. The body is then taken out, and its feathers, which are not in the least injured by this immersion, being placed smooth, it is put into a machine made for the purpose, and the wings, tail, &c. arranged agreeable to nature. In this position, it is placed in an oven moderately heated, where it is slowly dried, and will ever after retain its natural attitude, without danger of putrefaction.

The following simple composition may be employed with success, for the same purpose: Common salt one pound, powdered alum four ounces, ground pepper two ounces. The bird intended for preservation, should be opened from the lower part of the breast-bone to the tail, with a pair of sharp-pointed scissars, and the whole of the intestines taken out. The cavity is then to be filled with the mixture, and the lacerated part should be properly stitched. The thorax, from the beak to the stomach, must be filled with the same composition, reduced to a finer powder. The head is to be opened near the root of the tongue, with the point of the scissars, and the structure of the brain destroyed, by moving them in a circular direction, and as soon as they are withdrawn, the cavity is likewise to be filled with the mixture. After having been suspended by the legs, for a few days, the bird may be fixed in a frame, in its natural attitude.