This section is from the book "Facts Worth Knowing", by Robert Kemp Philip. Also available from Amazon: Inquire Within for Anything You Want to Know.
Large animals should be carefully skinned with the horns, skull, tail, hoofs, etc., entire. Then rub the inside of the skin thoroughly with a mixture of salt, pepper, and alum, and hang up to dry. Large birds may be treated in the same way, but should not be put into spirits.
Small Birds may be preserved as follows: - 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 mixture of salt, alum, and pepper, putting some through the gullet and whole length of the neck; then hang the bird in a cool, airy place - first by the feet that the body:nay be impregnated by the salts, and afterward? by a thread through the under mandible Of the bill, till it appears to be sweet; then hang 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, and pack it smooth in paper.
Large fishes should be opened in the belly, the entrails taken out, and the inside well rubbed with pepper, and stuffed with oakum. Small fishes may be put in spirit, as well as reptiles, worms, and insects, (except butterflies and moths,) insects of fine colours should be pinned down in a box prepared for that pur-pose, with their wings expanded.
To keep away insects from birds' eyes, suspend a little bag of sulphur in the cage. This is said to be healthful for birds generally, as well as serving to keep away insects by which they become infested.
 
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