viscid substance, prepared after different ways. The most common bird-lime among us is made from holly-bark, boiled ten or twelve hours; when the green coat being separated from the other, it is covered up a fortnight in a moist place; then pounded into a tough paste, so that no fibres of the wood are discernible, and washed in a running stream till no motes appear; put up to ferment four or five days, skimmed as often as anything arises, and laid up for use. To use it, a third part of nut-oil, or thin grease, must be incorporated with it over the fire.
The juice of holly-bark is a very peculiar substance. But if trials were made, it seems probable, that many other juices would be found to have the same clammy nature. The mistletoe affords a juice, even superior to that of the holly; and if a young shoot of the common alder be cut through, there will a stringy juice draw out in threads, and follow the knife like bird-lime or the juice of the holly. It seems in this tree to be lodged, not in the bark, but in certain veins just within the circle of the wood. The roots of all the hyacinths also afford a tough and stringy juice of the same kind; and so does the asphodel, the narcissus, and the black bryony root, in a surprising quantity.
When twigs, &c., smeared with bird-lime, are to be put in places subject to wet, the common bird-lime is apt apt to have its force soon taken away. It is necessary, therefore, to have recourse to a particular sort, which from its property of bearing water unhurt, is called water bird-lime; and is prepared thus: Take a pound of strong and good bird-lime; wash it thoroughly in spring-water, till the hardness is all removed; and then beat it well, that the water may be clean separated, so as not a drop remains; then dry it well, and put it into an earthen pot; add to it as much capon's grease as will make it run. Then add two spoonfuls of strong vinegar, one spoonful of oil, and a small quantity of Venice turpentine. Let the whole boil for some minutes over a moderate fire, stirring it all the time. Then take it off; and when there is occasion to use it, warm it, and cover the sticks well with it. This is the best sort of bird-lime for snipes and other birds that love wet places.
The most successful method of using the common bird-lime is this: Cut down the main branch or bough of any bushy tree whose twigs are thick, straight, long, and smooth, and have neither knots nor prickles. The willow and the birch-tree afford the best of this kind. Let all the superfluous shoots be trimmed off, and the twigs all made neat and clean; they must all be well covered with the bird-lime, within four inches of the bottom; but the main bough from which they grow, must not be touched with the lime. No part of the bark, where the lime should come, must be left bare; but it is a nice matter to lay it on properly; for if it be too thick it will give the birds a difficulty, and they will not come near it; and if there be too little of it, it will not hold them when they are there. When the bush is thus prepared, it must be set up in some dead hedge, or among some growing bushes near the outskirts of a town, a farmer's back-yard, or the like, if it be in the spring; for these places are the resort of the small birds at that time. If it be used in summer, the bush must be placed in the midst of a quick-set hedge, or in groves, bushes, or white-thorn trees, near fields of corn, hemp, flax, and the like; and in the winter, the proper places are about stacks of corn, hovels, barns, and the like. When the lime-bush is thus planted, the sportsman must stand as near it as he can, without being discovered; and with the mouth, or otherwise, make such sort of notes as the birds do when they attack or call to one another. There are bird-calls to be bought for this use; but the most expert method is to learn the notes of call of the several birds, and imitate them by a sort of whistling. When one bird is thus enticed to the bush, and hung fast, the bushes of the sportsman is not to run up to take it, but to be patient; for it will hang itself more fast, by its struggling to get away; and its fluttering will bring more to the bush, so that several may be taken together. The time of the day for this sport is from sun-rise to ten o'clock, and from one to five-past. Another very good method of bringing the birds together, is by a stake: a bat makes a very good stake; but it must be fastened, so as to be in sight at a distance. An owl is a still better stake; for this bird never goes abroad but it is followed by all the small birds in the neighbourhood. They will gather together in great numbers about it; and having no convenient place to fit on but the lime-bush, will be taken in great numbers. If a living owl or bat is not to be had, the skin stuffed will serve the purpose, and will last twenty years. Some have used the image of an owl carved in wood, and painted in the natural colours; and it has been found to succeed very well.
Divination by Birds. Migration of Birds. Nidification of Birds. See Migration. Ornithology.
Singing Birds are, the nightingale, blackbird, starling, thrush, linnet, lark, thrush, Canary-bird, bullfinch, goldfinch, &c. See some very curious experiments and observations on the singing of birds, Phil. Trans. vol. lixiii. part ii. N° 31. Their first sound is called chirp, which is a single sound repeated at short intervals; the next call, which is a repetition of one and the same note; and the third sound is called recording, which a young bird continues to do for ten or eleven months, till he is able to execute every part of his song; and when he is perfect in his lesson, he is said to sing his song round. Their notes are no more innate than language in man; they all sing in the same key. The honourable author Daines Barrington has there attempted to reduce their comparative merits to a scale; and to explain how they first came to have particular notes. See Song of Birds.
Methods of preserving Birds from putrefaction, and so as to retain their natural form and position, as well as the beauty of their colours and plumage—A good antiseptic for animal substances has been much inquired after; as for want of it, many curious animals, and birds particularly, come to our hands in a very imperfect state; some from foreign parts entirely mificary, and others of the finest plumage are devoured by insects. Various methods of preservation, therefore, have been of late described*; but the following improved methods by Dr Lettlow† seem to be the least troublesome and the most complete.
"After opening the bird by a longitudinal incision from the breast to the vent; dissecting the fleshy parts off and from the bones; and removing the entrails, eyes, brains (f), and tongue; the cavities and inside of the skin are to be sprinkled with the powders mentioned below: the eyes (o) are then to be inserted, and the head stuffed with cotton or tow: in the next place, a wire is to be passed down the throat through one of the nostrils, and fixed into the breast-bone: wires are also to be introduced through the feet, up the legs and thighs, and inserted into the same bone; next, fill the body with cotton to its natural size, and sew the skin over it: the attitude is lastly to be attended to; and in whatever position the subject is placed to dry, that same position will be retained afterwards."
"The:
(e) In large birds, the brains may be extracted by the eyes; the best instrument for this purpose is a director used by surgeons, which may be had of an instrument-maker at a trifling expense.
(g) Wax (used by some) is not a proper substance for eyes; there are persons in London, whose business it is to make glass-eyes of any size or colour, at a penny or two-pence a pair." The drying compound is as follows:
- Corroitive sublimate, \(\frac{1}{2}\) lb. - Saltpetre prepared or burnt, \(\frac{1}{2}\) lb. - Alum burnt, \(\frac{1}{2}\) lb. - Flowers of sulphur, \(\frac{1}{4}\) lb. - Camphor, \(\frac{1}{4}\) lb. - Black pepper, 1 lb. - Tobacco ground coarse, 1 lb.
Mix the whole together, and keep it in a glass vessel stopped close.
Small birds may be preserved in brandy, rum, arrack, or first runnings; though in this manner 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 carefully to be preserved, and the plumage stained as little as possible with blood. The inside of the skin may be stuffed as recommended above.
Kuckahn observes†, that 'baking is not only useful in fresh preservations, but will also be of very great service to old ones, destroying the eggs of insects; and it should be a constant practice once in two or three years to bake them over again, and to have the cases fresh washed with camphorated spirit, or the sublimate solution, which would not only preserve collections from decay much longer, but also keep them sweet.'
One of the best preservatives, is to procure close boxes, well glazed: with such a precaution I have kept them in a dry room many years without the least appearance of injury.—Baking is apt to crimp and injure the plumage, unless great care be used; and therefore the proper degree of heat should be ascertained by means of a feather, before such subjects are baked.
When the subject is to be kept for some time in a hot climate, it should be secured in a box filled with sawdust, oakum, or tobacco, well sprinkled with the sublimate solution."
In Guiana, the number and variety of beautiful birds is so great, that several persons in the colony advantageously employ themselves, with their slaves and dependants, in killing and preserving these animals for the cabinets of naturalists in different parts of Europe. The method of doing this, as related by Mr Bancroft*, is, "to put the bird which is to be preserved in a proper vessel, and cover him with high wines, or the first running of the distillation of rum. In this spirit he is suffered to remain for 24 or 48 hours, or longer, according to his size, till it has penetrated through every part of his body. When this is done, the bird is taken out; and his feathers, which are no ways changed by this immersion, are placed smooth and regular. It is then put into a machine, made for the purpose, among a number of others, and its head, feet, wings, tail, &c. are placed exactly agreeable to life. In this position they are all placed in an oven, very moderately heated, where they are slowly dried; and will ever after retain their natural position, without danger of putrefaction."
Mr Edwards's Recipe for making Pictures of Birds,† Nat. Hist. with their natural feathers†. First, take a thin board, of Birds, or panel of deal, or wainscot well seasoned, that it may not shrink; then smoothly paste on it white paper, and let it dry; and if the wood casts its colour through,
you may paste on a second paper, and it will be whiter: let the second paper dry; then get ready any bird that you would represent, and draw it as exact as may be on your papered panel, of its natural size (middle-sized birds are best for this work); then paint what ground-work, or tree, or other thing, you design to set your bird on, together with the bill and legs of the bird in water-colours, leaving the bird to be covered with its own natural feathers. You must first prepare the part to be feathered, by laying on pretty thick gum Arabic, dissolved in water, with a large hair-pencil: then lay the panel flat, and let it dry hard; and when dry, cover it with your gum-water a second time, and let it dry; and then a third, in case you do not find it lie with a good body on the paper; the thickness of a shilling, when dried hard, is sufficient. When your piece is thus prepared, take the feathers off from your bird as you use them; beginning always at the tail and points of the wing, and working upwards to the head; observing to cover that part of your draught with the feather that you take from the same part in your bird, letting them fall one over another in their natural order: you must prepare your feathers by cutting off the downy part that is about their bottoms; and the larger feathers must have the insides of their shafts shaved off with a knife to make them lie flat; the quills of the wings must have their inner webs clipped off, that in laying them the gum may hold them by their shafts. When you begin to lay them, take a pair of steel pliers to hold the feathers in; and have some gum-water, not too thin, and a large pencil, ready to moisten the gummed ground-work by little and little as you work it: then lay your feathers on the moistened parts; which must not be waterish, but something tacky or clammy to hold the feathers. You should prepare a parcel of small leaden weights, in the form of sugar-loaves; which you may cast in sand, by first making holes in its surface with a pointed stick: these weights will be necessary to set on the feathers you have newly laid on, to hold them to the gum till they are dry and fixed: but you must be cautious lest the gum come through the feathers; for it not only stains them, but dries to the bottoms of the weights, and you will be apt to pull off the feathers with the weights, which will disorder your work: when you have wholly covered your bird with feathers, you must with a little thick gum stick on a piece of paper cut round, of the bigness and in the place of the eye, which you must colour like the eye of the bird. When the whole is dry, dress the feathers round the outline that may chance to flare a little, and rectify what may be mended in any other part: then lay a sheet of clean paper on it; and on that a heavy book, or some such thing, to press it; after which it may be preserved in a frame covered with a glass.