HINTS ON PAINTING MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 255 



put on appears too strong and conspicuous, stipple the surface 

 with a little plaster Paris, to tone it down. 



PAINTING LEGS AND BEAKS OF BIRDS. Paint the legs and beaks 

 of such birds as require it, with a mixture of boiled linseed oil 

 and turpentine, equal parts of each, and have your paint thin 

 enough on the legs that it will not obscure the scales. On the 

 beak, a thicker coat is necessary, and, in fact, it is nearly always 

 necessary to put on two coats. In coloring the beaks of toucans 

 and hornbills, blend adjoining colors very deeply but evenly, 

 and let there be no hard boundary lines anywhere. A little 

 white wax softened and cut with turpentine and mixed with the 

 paint on a bird's beak gives the color a depth and transparency 

 quite similar to the appearance of the beak of a living bird. 



PAINTING MOUNTED FISHES. A fish must be perfectly dry 

 before it is touched with a brush. Time spent in painting a 

 half-dry specimen is so much thrown away. The repairs with 

 papier-mache must be complete and dry, and the specimen per- 

 fectly clean. Nearly every fish possesses in its coloring pig- 

 ment a quality which imparts to it a silvery, metallic lustre ; 

 therefore, to secure the finest result attainable in painting a 

 fish, either an actual specimen or a plaster cast, all those that 

 are silvery must first be coated over the entire scaly surface 

 with nickel leaf, laid on sizing, similar to the treatment of gold 

 leaf in gilding. 



With dark-colored fishes satisfactory work may be done? 

 without the use of nickel leaf, except on the under parts, which 

 are nearly always silvery white. It is absolutely impossible to 

 reproduce the brilliant lustre so characteristic of white scales 

 by the use of white paint alone, or even silver bronze, or silver 

 paint. AVitliout the nickel underneath the paint looks dead 

 and artificial. If you are called upon to make a large collection 

 with as little outlay as possible, it will be sufficient to omit the 

 nickel leaf, for your paint will still faithfully record the colors. 

 But if you wish to have your fish look as brilliantly beautiful as 

 when taken struggling from the water, put on the leaf first and 

 paint on it, /////////. so that the silver will show through your 

 colors and impart to them the desired lustre. If you paint too 

 thickly, the leaf will be covered up, and its lustre obscured. 



Do not attempt to use silver bronze, silver j taint, or even 



