70 HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. 



own cotton coffin, it is astonishing how close they may be laid 

 without harm ; and how many will go in a given space a tray 

 30X18X4 inches will easily hold three hundred and fifty birds 

 six inches long. As a tray fills up, the drier ones first put in 

 may be submitted to more pressure. A skin originally dried 

 in good shape may subsequently be pressed perfectly flat with- 

 out material injury; the only thing to avoid being contortion. 

 The whole knack of packing birds corresponds to that of filling 

 a trunk solidly full of clothes as may easily be done without 

 damage to an immaculate shirt-front. Finally, I would say, 

 never put away a bird unlabelled, not even for an hour ; you 

 may forget it, or die. Never tie a label to a bird's bill, wing 

 or tail ; tie it securely to both legs where they cross, and it will 

 be just half as liable to become detached as if tied to one leg 

 only. Never paste a label, or even a number, on a bird's plu- 

 mage. Never put in glass eyes before mounting. Never paint 

 or varnish a bird's bill or feet. Never replace missing plumage 

 of one bird with the feathers of another no, not even if the 

 birds came out of the same nest. 



.B. Special Processes ; Complications and Accidents. 



37. THE foregoing method of procedure is a routine prac- 

 tice applicable to three-fourths if not nine-tenths of the "gen- 

 eral run" of birds. But there are several cases requiring a 

 modification of this programme ; while several circumstances 

 may tend to embarrass your operations. The principal special 

 conditions may therefore be separately treated to your advan- 

 tage. 



38. SIZE. Other things being equal,- a large bird is more 

 difficult to prepare than a small one. In one case, you only 

 need a certain delicacy of touch, easily acquired and soon be- 

 coming mechanical ; in the other, demand on your strength 

 may be made, till your muscles ache. It takes longer, too ;* 



* The reader may be curious to know something of the statistics on this score 

 how long it ought to take him to prepare an ordinary skin. He can scarcely 

 imagine, from his first tedious operations, how expert he may become, not only in 



