NOTES ON BIRD PRESERVING. 139 
feathers there may rot out, and care must be taken that this part is sub- 
merged for much less time than the body. The above-mentioned Harrier 
enjoyed a forty-eight hours’ bath, and was subsequently dried with plaster- 
of-Paris. It was a success so far as the body was concerned, but I lost 
feathers from the throat. This loss, however, is not of necessity irreparable. 
I detached others from the unseen side, and, gumming them one above 
the other on tissue paper so as to overlap, inserted a passable imitation 
of the original side. Such desperate remedies are needful only in the 
case of a rare bird which cannot be matched. In ordinary circumstances, 
the injured back, tail, or whatever it may be, can be got from the bird 
of the same species and inserted whole. If it is the case of a few feathers 
only being missing, or of an unseemly depression down the centre of the 
breast, the evil can be remedied by the insertion of single feathers. Cut 
off their bases, lift up the feathers just above the gap, and with a forceps 
thrust in the cut feather with a little paste at the end. You can 
thus easily get it to stick where it is wanted, and the gap disappears 
forthwith. 
An operation which I once performed with some success on an Avocet 
was the removal of a damaged inch of neck. This was accomplished 
by simple cutting, with little real difficulty, and the head was then forced down 
the neck-wire, so that the Avocet now stands in an attitude of repose, 
with its head drawn into its shoulders. Beaks and claws can be repaired 
with wax, and then painted. Throats and cheeks can be stuffed without 
relaxing the whole skin, if a piece of wet cotton-wool be tied round 
the head for a couple of days. It is, however, a ticklish operation at all 
times. The eye must be extracted, and the skin beneath and on either 
side carefully worked with a smooth flat strip of wood, cotton-wool being 
inserted in the cavities thus formed. The greatest difficulty lies in detaching 
the skin between the eye and beak from the bone to which it will adhere, 
and only in the case of largish birds can one hope to meet with any great 
measure of success. If you do venture at all, again I say, be bold but 
don’t hurry. 
