36o The Book of Woodcraft 



cannot put a wire through cotton, therefore use no cotton 

 in a bird to be mounted; use tow instead. Plug the eyes, 

 wrap the legs and wings as before, but with tow. 



If it is a dry skin that is to be mounted remove the 

 cotton body and replace it with a lump of cotton soaked 

 with water. Wrap damp cloth or cotton around the 

 outside of each leg, and on the bend of each wing. Shut 

 this up in a tin box for twenty-four hours and it will be 

 soft and can be treated like a fresh skin. 



Cut a wire (of stovepipe size) about a foot long. File 

 a sharp point at one end and bend the other end into a 

 hook (Fig. 8). Take tow in long strips and lash it tight 

 over, around and through the hook — stitching it tight 

 and binding it on with plenty of packthread — until you 

 have a body the size and shape of the one you took out 

 of the robin, with a neck on it also, like the bird's own 

 neck (Figs. 9 and 10). Of course the real body should 

 be at hand to give the measurements. Keep the neck 

 lower than it appears, because the real neck is supple 

 and drops low between the shoulders in a way not possible 

 for the substitute. This body should be hard enough 

 to hold a pin or needle driven into it; indeed some taxi- 

 dermists use bodies carved out of cork. 



Put the point of the wire up the neck, and out through 

 the top of the skull between the eyes (N. W. Fig. 11). 

 Gently work the neck up to the back of the skull and the 

 body into its place. 



Now make two other sharpened wires. Work one up 

 through each foot under the skin of the leg, under the 

 wrapping, and on straight through the hard body — which 

 it enters about the middle of the side (X in Fig. 9). When 

 this is far enough through clinch it and drive it back 

 firmly into the body; taking care to avoid tearing the 

 skin, by easing up the leg on the wire, as it is drawn back. 



