NOTES ON BIRD PRESERVING. 137 
with a needle, and, if you like, insert the eyes. Insert them with the utmost 
care: there is much in a life-like eye. 
The throat must, of course, be stuffed as well as the cheeks, and it is 
best done after the wire has been passed through the skull. Most people 
spend much time in cleaning and wrapping up the thigh-bones and long 
inner bones of the wing; it is unnecessary in the smaller birds. The 
majority seldom show much of their thighs, and the part they do show is 
so thin that the wire running beside the bone is quite sufficient stuffing in 
itself. Therefore cut away half the thigh-bone after you have got the wire 
through. Again, instead of cleaning and wrapping the wing-bones, cut 
them away, and bind a lump of tow on the back of the body to compensate 
for their loss; the effect is better, and you save time. A straight back looks 
well in a barrack-yard, a round one in a stuffed bird. Moreover, this rotundity 
helps the set of the wings. Before leaving the subject of skinning, I would 
impress upon the beginner not to abandon a bird as spoilt if he has the 
misfortune to relieve it of its head or tail. The tail can be put in afterwards 
with a wire, and if slightly cocked will look quite natural. It is the same 
with the head; you need only push it down the neck-wire into the shoulders 
and put your bird in an attitude of repose. 
Stuffing is a more difficult task than skinning, and. it is here that the 
artistic element comes in. On the whole, corrosive sublimate mixed with 
methylated spirit until it just does not leave a deposit on a black feather, 
is the best preservative; but it is very poisonous, and the skin begins to lose 
its flexibility directly it is anointed with it, so much so that I generally 
wash it over afterwards with water to get it properly relaxed again. Equal 
parts of burnt alum, naphthaline and tannin form an innocuous pre- 
paration much recommended by some. They use it dry, and rub it into 
the skin. 
Provided that you have your lump on the back, it is better to get 
the body too small rather than too big; you can stuff chopped tow into 
the flanks as you sew up. If the skin won’t meet across the breast, you 
may slit the sides beneath the wings, and then it will. I consider it best 
to have a wooden back to one’s cases, because it enables you to aim at making 
the “show” side perfect rather than both moderate. This advice may 
savour of the well-known motto that ‘‘What isn’t seen need not be clean,” 
but, as a fact, the slight turn of the head, which infuses such life into the 
near side, must always be done at the expense of expression on the other; 
and it seems best to recognize this truism at once and act upon it. 
Be careful about the angle of the legs; next to the head they do most 
