cabinet · cur · 10

cabinet of curiosities · case no. 10

a small bird's skeleton

wired upright on its perch, beak slightly open, as if mid-call. the bones are very fine and almost white. when the cabinet's footing is walked on too sharply, the skeleton trembles in a small, exact way — the suggestion of a song with no air to push.

the species is uncertain; the ledger says "songbird, common." the egg in the next vitrine is, by the curator's wager, the same line of bird. they are kept apart anyway, out of respect.

field-note · do not whistle near the case; the perch is fragile.

egg · mouse · dodo · silence · breath

atlas · return