Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States and the Antilles, 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824, with instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, etc., for cabinets of natural history / by Charles Waterton, Esq.

  • Waterton, Charles, 1782-1865.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States and the Antilles, 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824, with instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, etc., for cabinets of natural history / by Charles Waterton, Esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Tolucris.” If your early performance should not corres- pond 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. Preserving