which a little
powdered white sugar is stirred. Essence of cloves prevents mould in
this also, unless there be an excess of water.

A fine paste, useful for paper or photographic work, is made from
rice-flour.

"Dextrine," in powder, is cheap and strong, easily soluble in cold
water, but as a paste shows up on feathers, etc, much more than
wheat-flour paste.

Cement, for uniting broken bones or fossils, or to fix shells, etc, on
tablets, is, says the late Frank Buckland, made thus

No. 32.--White Cement.

Beeswax, 1 part.

Powdered plaster of Paris (best fine), 5 parts.

Resin, 4 parts.

Warm the edges (when possible) and use the cement warm.

I would advise the plaster being stirred into the other two
ingredients as wanted. The great objection to this and to all the
"coagulines" is that the edges of the specimen require warming, which
cannot always be done.

Another good colourless cement is

No. 33.--White Cement, No. 2.

Gum tragacanth in powder, 1 part.

Gum arabic (acacia) in powder, 1 part.

Glacial acetic acid, a few drops.

When used, moisten the gums with a little of the acetic acid diluted.

Gum mastic dissolved in alcohol, and white shellac dissolved in
naphtha, are two other white cements.

Where, however, colour does not matter, take

No. 34--Brown Cement.

Common shellac, 0.25 lb.

Spirits of naphtha, 0.5 pint.

Place them in a bottle in a warm situation on a closed stove, or in a
vessel containing hot water. Be careful of fire. The edges of bones or
undersides of fossils are smeared with this, tied with string, and
left for a day or so to unite.

The reader has now a repertoire of poisonous and harmless preparations
from which he may choose. As for myself, for the preservation of
birds, I pin my faith to formula No. 4, viz, my Preservative Soap for
the inside of the skin, and a wash of benzoline or turpentine
liberally applied from time to time--say twice a year--to the outside
of all uncased or exposed specimens. This, it will be seen, entirely
does away with the use of any poison, and yet is proved to be of the
highest efficacy.

For those who do not object to expense nor to the use of a poisonous
preparation, a wash of Waterton's Solution (No. 5), or the sulphuric
ether preparation (No. 18), can be substituted for benzoline or
turpentine. I mention the expense, because only rectified