Getting started

From specimen to shelf

Updated October 2026

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One: establish what it is and where it came from Two: decide whether you can sell or only hold it Three: choose the preservative knowing the shipping consequence Four: then choose the jar Record the provenance with the specimen Label the jar with the fluid, not just the contents Keep the four answers together References

Four decisions in a fixed order, because the first can rule the others out entirely.

One: establish what it is and where it came from

Species, and how it was acquired. The MBTA turns on whether the bird is a native migratory species, and 50 CFR 10.13 is the list. The Lacey Act turns on whether it was taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any other law.

Two: decide whether you can sell or only hold it

The MBTA names possession and sale in the same sentence, so the honest answer is often neither without a permit. Permits are a Fish and Wildlife Service matter, and they are the right place to take a specific question.

Three: choose the preservative knowing the shipping consequence

Ethanol is a flammable liquid and the small-quantity route caps the inner receptacle at 30 mL. If the specimen has to travel, the preservative and the jar size are a single decision rather than two.

Four: then choose the jar

Glass, a closure with a liner that resists the preservative, a neck wide enough to get the specimen in and out without damage, and clear or amber depending on whether the specimen is being shown or protected.

Record the provenance with the specimen

Where, when and how it was acquired, and from whom. That record is what answers a Lacey Act question years later, and in a collection it is worth as much as the specimen because without it the specimen cannot be moved.

Label the jar with the fluid, not just the contents

Hazard communication applies to a shipped container of a hazardous chemical regardless of what is suspended in it, and anyone who opens a jar years later needs to know what is in there.

Keep the four answers together

Identification and provenance, legal position, preservative and shipping route, container. Change any one and the others need rechecking, which is the same discipline every property here arrives at for different reasons.

References

50 CFR 10.13, List of Birds Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, whose stated legal authorities are the MBTA at 16 U.S.C. 703-712, the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978 and the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956, implementing conventions with Canada, Mexico, Japan and Russia. law.cornell.edu

16 U.S.C. 3372, the Lacey Act’s prohibited acts. Paragraph (a)(1) makes it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase any fish, wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any law, treaty or regulation of the United States or any Indian tribal law; (a)(2) extends it to interstate or foreign commerce for State and foreign law violations. law.cornell.edu

49 CFR 173.4, Small quantities for highway and rail. Class 3 and other listed materials are not subject to other requirements where the inner receptacle holds no more than 30 mL of liquid, is not liquid-full at 55 C, is glass, earthenware, metal or plastic of at least 0.2 mm, has any removable closure held securely with wire, tape or other positive means, and is packed with non-reactive absorbent able to take the entire contents inside a strong outer packaging, the whole demonstrated by prototype testing. law.cornell.edu

29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication, which sets what a shipped container of a hazardous chemical carries and requires a safety data sheet. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal statute and regulation, not from a collection room. Wildlife law is federal, state and sometimes tribal at once, and the Lacey Act makes a state or foreign violation a federal matter. Nothing here is advice on a particular specimen, and the permit questions belong to the Fish and Wildlife Service.