MATEEIALS FOR STUFFING. 53 



scalpels need constant sharpening — mine are generally too 

 dull to cut much with, and I suppose I am like other people — 

 while scissors stay sharp enough. The flat, thin ivory or ebony 

 handle of the scalpel is about as useful as the blade. Finger- 

 nails, which w^ere made before scalpels, are a mighty help. 

 Forceps are almost indispensable for seizing and holding parts 

 too small or too remote to be grasped by the fingers. The 

 knitting-needle is wanted for a specific purpose noted beyond. 

 The shears or nippers are only needed for what the ordinary 

 scissors are too weak to do. Our instruments, you see now, 

 are "a short horse soon curried." 



§32. Materials, a. For staffing. " What do you stufl' 'em 

 with?" is usually the first question of idle curiosity about 

 taxiderm}^, as if that were the great point ; whereas, the stuff"- 

 ing is so small a matter that I generally reply — " anything, ex- 

 cept brickbats !" But if stuffing birds were the final cause of 

 Cotton^ that admirable substance could not be more perfectly 

 adapted than it is to the purpose. Ordinary raw cotton batting 

 or wadding is what you want. When I can get it I never 

 think of using anything else for small birds. I would use it 

 for all birds were expense no object. Here tow comes in ; there 

 is a fine, clean, bleached article of tow prepared for surgical 

 dressings ; this is the best, but any will do. Some say chop 

 your tow fine ; this is harmless but unnecessary. A crumpled 

 newspaper, wrapped with tow, is first-rate for a large bird. . 

 Failing cotton or tow, any soft, light, dry vegetable substance 

 may be made to answer, rags, paper, crumbled leaves, fine dried 

 grass, soft fibrous inner bark, etc. ; the down of certain plants, 

 as thistle and silk-weed, makes an exquisite filling for small 

 birds. But I will qualify my remark about brickbats by say- 

 ing : never put hair, wool, feathers, or any other animal sub- 

 stance in a birdskin — far better leave it empty ; for, as we 

 shall see in the sequel, bugs come fast enough, without being 



invited into a snug nest. b. For preserving. Arsenic* is the 



« . 



* "Arsenic" — not the pure metal properly so called, but arsenic of the shops, 

 or arsenious acid. 



