He also contrived to preserve his specimens during his meal hours, or in his idle times “betwixt pairs,”—whilst, as shoemakers would say, they were “on the hing.” During the long winter nights, he arranged the objects preserved, and put them in their proper cases. In order the better to accomplish this work, he did not go to bed until a very late hour. As he was not able to afford both fire and light, he put out the lamp when engaged upon anything that could be done without it, and continued his labours by the light of the fire.
When forced to go to bed, he went at once, and having slept at railway speed for an hour or an hour and a half, he was up again and at work upon his specimens. He felt as much refreshed, he said, by his sound sleep, as if he had slept the whole night. And yet, during his sleep, he must have had his mind fixed upon his work, otherwise he could not have wakened up at the precise time that he had previously appointed. Besides stuffing his own birds, he also stuffed the birds which other people had sent him,—for which he was paid.
One of the objects which he had in view in making his “rounds” so frequently, was to examine the traps he had set, in order to catch the beetles, grubs, and insects, which he desired to collect. His traps were set with every imaginable organic material,—dead birds, rats, rabbits, or hedgehogs; dead fish, crabs, or seaweed. He placed them everywhere but on the public roads,—in fields and woods, both on the ground and hung on trees; in holes, in old dykes, in water, both fresh and stagnant. Some of these traps were visited daily, others once a week, whilst those set in water, marshy places, and in woods, were only visited once a month. He never passed any dead animal without first searching it carefully, and then removing it to some sheltered spot. He afterwards visited it from time to time. Fish stomachs, and the refuse of fishermen’s lines, proved a rich mine for marine objects. By these means he obtained many things which could not otherwise have been obtained; and he thus added many rare objects to his gradually growing collection.
He was, however, doomed to many disappointments. One of these may be mentioned. Among his different collections was a large variety of insects. He had these pinned down in boxes in the usual manner. He numbered them separately. When he had obtained the proper names of the insects, his intention was to prepare a catalogue. He knew that there were sheets of figures sold for that and similar purposes, but he could not afford to buy them. He accordingly got a lot of old almanacs and multiplication tables, and cut out the numbers. It was a long and tedious process, but at length he completed it.