CLEANING THE PLUMAGE OF BIRDS. 199 



Paris. The manner of managing plaster Paris will be described 

 in detail in another paragraph. 



Very often the plumage of a freshly killed swan, gull, or duck, 

 becomes so covered with dirt, blood, and grease by the time it 

 reaches the taxidermist that it is a sight to behold. Never 

 mind if it is, you can make it as good as new, in every respect, 

 so far as cleanliness is concerned. The thing to do is to skin 

 the bird, and clean the skin before either mounting it or mak- 

 ing it up as a skin. The cleaning is often made easier, however, 

 by hastily filling the loose skin with excelsior or tow, to give a 

 firm foundation to work upon when cleaning the plumage. 



If you have no turpentine, as will probably happen to you 

 many a time when you least expect it, take some warm water, 

 as warm as you can bear your hand in, rub some castile soap in 

 it, and with a sponge, or a soft cotton cloth, wash the soiled 

 feathers. Do not scrub them as you would a greasy floor, and 

 utterly destroy the perfect set of the feathers, but sponge them 

 with the grain, as far as possible, treating them as a compact 

 layer. Now, if you have turpentine, wipe the feathers as dry as 

 you can, and give them a sponging with that, for they will come 

 out better from the plaster Paris than otherwise. When the 

 plaster is put upon feathers that are wet with water, it acts too 

 quickly in its drying, and the feathers are often dried before 

 they have had time to become fluffy as in life. But if yon have 

 no turpentine, you must finish without it. Whichever liquid 

 you use, at the finish fill the feathers full of plaster Paris, and 

 almost immediately lift the bird and beat it gently to knock out 

 the saturated plaster. That done, put on more plaster, filling 

 the feathers full of it down to their very roots, and presently 

 whip that out also. By the time you have made the third ap- 

 plication, the feathers are almost dry, and the plaster falls out 

 almost dry also. Now is your time to whip the feathers with a 

 supple switch, or a light filler of stiff wire, to make each be- 

 draggled feather fluff up at the base of its shaft, and spread its 

 web for all it is worth. This treatment is also vitally nerrss.-n-y 

 to knock the plaster out of the plumage. Work the feathers 

 with your long forceps, lifting them up a bunch at a time and 

 letting them fall back into place. By this time the plaster flies 

 out in a cloud of white dust, and the whipping of the feathers 



