Part 34

Furs of animals immersed in this solution will retain their pristine brightness and durability in any climate.

Take the finest curled feather from a lady's head, dip it in the solution, and shake it gently till it be dry; you will find that the spirit will fly off in a few minutes, not a curl in the feather will be injured, and the sublimate will preserve it from the depredation of the insect.

Perhaps it may be satisfactory to add here that some years ago I did a bird upon this plan in Demerara. It remained there two years. It was then conveyed to England, where it stayed five months, and returned to Demerara. After being four years more there it was conveyed back again through the West Indies to England, where it has now been near five years, unfaded and unchanged.

On reflecting that this bird has been twice in the Temperate and Torrid Zone, and remained some years in the hot and humid climate of Demerara, only six degrees from the line, and where almost everything becomes a prey to the insect, and that it is still as sound and bright as when it was first done, it will not be thought extravagant to surmise that this specimen will retain its pristine form and colours for years after the hand that stuffed it has mouldered into dust.

I have shown this art to the naturalists in Brazil, Cayenne, Demerara, Oroonoque and Rome, and to the royal cabinets of Turin and Florence. A severe accident prevented me from communicating it to the cabinet of Paris, according to my promise. A word or two more, and then we will conclude.

A little time and experience will enable you to produce a finished specimen: "Mox similis volucri, mox vera volucris." If your early performance should not correspond with your expectations, do not let that cast you down. You cannot become an adept all at once. The poor hawk itself, which you have just been dissecting, waited to be fledged before it durst rise on expanded pinion, and had parental aid and frequent practice ere it could soar with safety and ease beyond the sight of man.

Little more remains to be added, except that what has been penned down with regard to birds may be applied in some measure to serpents, insects and four-footed animals.

Should you find these instructions too tedious, let the wish to give you every information plead in their defence. They might have been shorter; but Horace says, by labouring to be brief you become obscure.

If by their means you should be enabled to procure specimens from foreign parts in better preservation than usual, so that the naturalist may have it in his power to give a more perfect description of them than has hitherto been the case; should they cause any unknown species to be brought into public view, and thus add a little more to the page of natural history, it will please me much. But should they unfortunately tend to cause a wanton expense of life; should they tempt you to shoot the pretty songster warbling near your door, or destroy the mother as she is sitting on the nest to warm her little ones, or kill the father as he is bringing a mouthful of food for their support--Oh, then! deep indeed will be the regret that I ever wrote them.

Adieu,

CHARLES WATERTON.

FINIS

GLOSSARY

Acaiari, the resinous gum of the hiawa-tree. Acouri, one of the agutis; a rodent about the size of a rabbit. Acuero, a species of palm. Æta, a palm of great size; it may reach a hundred feet before the leaves begin. Ai, the three-toed sloth. Albicore, a fish closely related to the tunny. Anhinga, the darter or snake-bird; a cormorant-like bird. Ant-bear, now called the ant-eater. Ara, a macaw. Ara, Scarlet, the scarlet macaw.

Bisa, one of the Saki monkeys.

Cabbage Mountain, one of the most beautiful of the palm-trees. Camoudi, the anaconda. Campanero, the bell-bird. Caprimulgus, one of the goat-suckers. Cassique, a bird of the hang-nest family. Cayman, an alligator, as here used. Cotingas, chatterers. Couguar, the puma. Coulacanara, the boa-constrictor. Courada, the white mangrove tree. Crabier, the boat-bill--a small heron. Crickets, cicadas. Cuia, one of the Trojans. Curlew, Scarlet, the scarlet ibis.

Dolphin, a coryphene--a true fish--not a cetacean.

Guana, the iguana lizard.

Hannaquoi, one of the curassows. Houtou, one of the motmots. Humming-bird Ara or Karabimiti, the crimson topaz.

Jacamar, Jacana, as anglicized--the spur-winged waterhen.

Labba, a rodent allied to the cavies.

Naudapoa, an ibis.

Patasa, unidentified. Phaeton, the tropic bird. Pi-pi-yo, unidentified. Porcupine, the tree-porcupine.

Quake, a basket of open-work, very elastic and expansive.

Redstart, quite distinct from the English redstart.

Sacawinki, one of the squirrel monkeys. Sangre-do-buey, the scarlet tanager.

Tangara, now called tanager. See Sangre-do-buey.

Waracaba, the trumpeter. Whip-poor-will, one of the goat-suckers. Who-are-you? one of the goat-suckers. Willy-come-go, one of the goat-suckers. Work-away, one of the goat-suckers.