CHAPTER XXII. 



MOUNTING SMALL BIRDS. 



WE will suppose that the skin of a small bird a robin, black- 

 bird, or thrush now lies on the table before us all ready for 

 mounting 1 . Perhaps it is a dry skin which has been thoroughly 

 relaxed, scraped, and worked into pliant shape ; but, for the sake 

 of the beginner, we will assume that it is a fresh skin which has 

 just been taken off, poisoned, and turned right side out again, 

 in accordance with the directions for skinning small birds which 

 have been given in Chapter VI. The body of the bird lies be- 

 fore you, and instead of making- up the subject as a dry skin, we 

 will mount it. 



In mounting- small birds the following- tools are absolutely 

 necessary to the production of good results : A pair of flat-nosed 

 pliers six inches long, for bending- and clinching w r ires, price 

 sixty cents ; a pair of six-inch cutting pliers, for cutting wire, 

 eighty-five cents ; a pair of bird-stuffer's forceps, four to six 

 inch, price twenty to seventy -five cents ; a nine-inch flat file, 

 twenty-two cents. Make for yourself a stuffing-rod, by taking a 

 piece of stiff" brass or iron wire, a little larger and longer than a 

 knitting-needle, hammering one end flat, with a slight upward 

 curve, and inserting the other in an awl-handle. 



Of materials you will need some excelsior ; some clean, fine 

 tow; a little putty or potter's clay; a spool of cotton thread, No. 

 40, and some suitable glass eyes. With our tools and materials 

 ready at hand, and the skin of our bird lying before us right 

 side out, we are ready to begin a new operation, mounting. 



For a bird the size of a robin or cat-bird, cut two pieces of 

 No. 18 soft or " annealed " iron wire (hard wire heated red hot 

 and allowed to cool slowly), each three times the length of the 

 bird's legs, from foot to end of long leg-bone, or tarsus. File 



