THE OOLOQIST. 



73 



help to tie together the two ulnar 

 wing-bones that are allowed to re- 

 main. The connecting thread should 

 approximate the normal distance in 

 the natural bird. I have found the 

 very best method of the shaping of 

 the skin to lie in the use of a narrow 

 band of paper pinned into a cylinder 

 the normal girth of the bird's body. 

 The object of making the cylinder 

 narrow is to admit of the grooming 

 of the entire plumage into normal 

 shape. 



Under no conceivable circumstances 

 ought birds of any size to be made 

 up without a re-inforcing of the neck. 

 For this purpose the older onitholo- 

 gists used to use small sticks or 

 splints. The invariable result of such 

 use, ancient or modern, is a stiff-neck- 

 ed specimen. (Perhaps Dille will 

 deny this). My own way, — which 

 may not prove helpful to others, — is 

 to use annealed wire, — copper wire, 

 when to be had. This is prepared for 

 insertion thus: 



After the smooth, moderately-com- 

 pressed body of cotton is ready, the 

 section of wire, which is cut about 

 three-fourths the length of the bird, 

 has a loop made at one end. This 

 loop is closed down upon the neck- 

 piece of cotton; which, at the front 

 end, has been rolled over and over 

 upon itself until, as held compressed 

 by the forceps, it may be squeezed 

 into the skull-cavity. As inserted, 

 this entire contraption lies with the 

 wire below the cotton. The body is 

 now inserted; set not too far forward; 

 the neck cotton is flattened out; the 

 wire is drawn backward until the 

 bird-neck is just the right length; 

 and the "slack" end of the wire is 

 then looped, and bent tightly over the 

 back end of the body-cotton. One who 

 had never tried this method of set- 

 ting and making rigid the limp skin 

 of a bird of medium or small size 

 could form no idea of the immense 



help in the shaping which results 

 from the use of the wire, in the neck- 

 cotton: (to say nothing of the stength- 

 ening of the neck.) To illustrate the 

 value of this neck reinforcing I will 

 repeat here a story as told to me, one 

 day, over our hot weiners, (in Mrs. 

 Dille's absence), by F. M. D., himself: 

 with a merry twinkle in his eyes: 



We had a mutual correspondent; a 

 man than whom no living mortal can 

 make better bird skins. Truly, they 

 are better shaped than the birds, 

 themselves. But he uses no neck- 

 strengthener. One day, in order 

 triumphantly to confute F. M. D., in 

 the latter's spirited defence of the 

 neck-stick, he sent to his Denver 

 friend a valuable skin, made up with- 

 out neck-re-inforcing. It arrived with 

 the neck broken. And now P. B. P. 

 and F. M. D. are most thoroughly 

 agreed on at least one point. 



Very few preparers of bird skin pay 

 the right sort of attention to the 

 shaping of the eyelids. About five 

 per cent, of the skins' one sees have 

 too much cotton in the eyes; and 

 pretty nearly ninety per cent, don't 

 begin to have enough. Moreover, the 

 same is true, — only more so, — with 

 the shaping of the throat. A big pro- 

 portion of the skins have the goitre; 

 while another big share have the con- 

 sumption. A very neat trick. — though 

 not an easy one, — ^by the way, — is to 

 introduce into the throat, after the 

 skin is made, just enough cotton, 

 placed in just such a way as that, 

 when the skin dries and shrinks, the 

 throat will be naturally rounded. Just 

 here comes in another trick: After 

 the throat cotton is placed, why not 

 close the mandibles, and keep them 

 closed, by inserting a pin at the ra- 

 mus of the lower mandible; and run- 

 ning it up into the nares? In a few 

 hours this pin may he withdrawn; its 

 quick and effective and neat use, in 



