Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1881-06-05
THE BIRDS OF NEVADA.
The Ori1:hological Researches Of
W. E. Bryant.
A Magnificent Collection of Sage.
brush SongsteTs.

For couple OF months past w. +
Bryant, professional taxidermist, ha
been making a collection of the birds o
the State for gentleman in Oakland
His headquarters during his stay il
Carson were at Hub Parker's, and hi.
operating room over the fsh-hatchery
Here he stuffed his birds and prepared
them for shipment, and having finished
his labors, LETT for San Francisco few
days ago.
| THE BIRD MORGUE.
! Last week an APPEAL reporter visited
the room where the birds were being
stuffed. Mr.. Bryant was seated at a
table with dozen birds lying before
him which he had slaughtered few
hours before with No. 8 shot. They
lay in row with their toes turned up
in air. The teble looked like morgue
after steamboat explosion. A sombre
crow headed the lot, then came a num-
Der of gaudy-plumed singing birds, and
little brown wren lay at the end of the
line. 1t was sad to think of how much
beauty and music had been knocked
into a cooked hat by this slaughter of
feathered innocence. About dozen
boxes Of stuffed birds lay about the
room. The corpses were laid out on
pieces of co ton batting. The operation
of stuffing the birds was quite interest
ing. The operator began by Sitting
the skin down the beast. He severed
the neck under the skin with pair of
scissors, and then stripped the skin, re-
tanning the legs from the knee joint
with the claws. During the SHINING
process he shOwered the birds with |
corn meal to absorb the blood and moist
ure and prevent the skin from adhering |
again to the carcass. After the skin was |
taken of, the inside was sprinkled with |
arsenic to preserveit. After the arsenic |
was absorbed the next step was to stuff
it with hair, such as is used in mat
tresses. The stuffed skin is then laid
away in box with the name of the
bird printed on its breast. The birds
Ire packed in cotton, about twenty-five
in box, and shipped by express. Mr..
Bryant was able to prepare about five
birds an hour. A tough owl requires
onger time. 49, E. Ea,ss
AN EGG COLLECTION.
He also made a collection of eggs,
varying in size from a pea to those Of
wild fowls as large hens egg. They
we're as varied and beautiful in color as
he birds themselves, being brown, pur-
Die, pink and golden. Some were a
lelicate slate color, fecked with red,
which looked like drops of blood, and
ome were notified with gold, blue and
green. Many of the eggs were in the
tests, which in turn were fastened to
he branches just as the had been built.
The eggs are preserved by making
mall hole in each end and blowing out
he contents. The collection had twenty
varieties of nests, all having destinc-
i've feature in the building and made
# different materials. Some are but a
ew loose twigs, some hang like a pocket
lnder the bough, and others are shaped
ike long-necked vases. One had two
ong entrances, one on each side, rum
ling under the climb. In all Mr.. Bryant
lad 800 eggs and $50 birds.
..-. ..-- p VARIETIES.
The following is list of the birds of
Nevada, as known by their common
ames.
Burrowing owl, Harris woodpecker,
lewis woodpecker, red-shafted flicker,
elted kingfsher,, short-legged pewee,
udubois warbler, Maryland yellow
hroat, green black-cap fiycatcher, Louis {
ana tanager, bank swallow, loggerhead
hrike, mountain hooking bird, rock
vren, long-billed marsh wren, slender
illed nuthatch, pygmy nuihatch, sky
,rk, Gambel's finch, Bell's finch, Oregon
nowbird, black-headed grosbeak, green Z
ailed finch, red-shouldered blackbird, Z
blackbird, Bullock's 7
riolo Clark,s crow mappie Steller's I