' MOUNTING BIRDS. 83 



gift. Unless you have at least the germs of the faculty in 

 your composition your taxidermal success will be incommensu- 

 rate with the time and trouble you bestow. My own taxider- 

 mal art is of a low order, decidedly not above average ; 

 although I have mounted a great many birds that would look 

 well enough by the side of ordinary museum work, few of them 

 have entirely answered my ideas, A live bird is to me s'uch a 

 beautiful object that the slightest taxidermal flaw in the effort 

 to represent it is painfully offensive ; perhaps this makes me 

 place the standard of excellence too high for practical pur- 

 poses. I like a good honest birdskin that does not pretend to 

 be anything else ; it is far preferable to the ordinary taxider- 

 mal abortions of the show-cases. But if, after the warnings 

 that I mean to convey in this paragraph, you still wish to try 

 your hand in the higher department of taxidermy, I will ex- 

 plain the whole process as far as manipulation goes ; the art 

 you must discover in yourself. 



The operation of skinning is precisely the same as that 

 already given in detail ; then, instead of stuffing the skin as 

 directed above, to lie on its back in a drawer, you have to stuff 

 it so that it will stand up on its feet and look as much like a 

 live bird as possible. To this end a few additional implements 

 and materials are required. These are : — a, annealed wire 

 of various numbers ; it may be iron or brass, but must be 

 perfectly annealed, so as to retain no elasticity or " spring ;" 

 b, several files of different sizes ; c, some slender, straight 

 brad awls ; d, cutting pliers ; e, setting needles, merely sew- 

 ing or darning needles stuck in a light wooden handle, for 

 dressing individual feathers ; /, plenty of pins * and sewing 

 thread ; g, an assortment of glass eyes. (The fixtures and 

 decorations are noticed, beyond, as occasion for their use 

 arises.) 



There are two principal methods of mounting, which may 

 be respectively styled soft stuffing, and hard stuffing. In the 

 former, a wire framework, consisting of a single anterior 



* The long, slender insect pins used by entomologists are the best. 



