84 HOW TO MAKE A BIRDSKIN. 



piece passing in the middle line of the body up through the 

 neck and out at the top of the head, is immovably joined 

 behind with two pieces, one passing through each leg : around 

 this naked forked frame soft stuffing is introduced, bit by bit, 

 till the proper contour of the skin is secured. I have seen 

 very pretty work of this kind, particularly on small birds ; but 

 I consider it much more difficult to secure satisfactory results 

 in this way than by hard stuffing, and I shall therefore con- 

 fine attention to the latter. This method is applicable to all 

 birds, is readily practised, facilitates setting of the wings, 

 arranging of the plumage, and giving of any desired attitude. 

 In hard stuffing, you make .a firm ball of tow rolled upon a 

 wire of the size and shape of the bird's body and neck to- 

 gether ; you introduce this whole, afterwards running in the 

 leg wires and clinching them immovably in the mass of tow. 



Having your empty skin in good shape, as already described, 

 cut three pieces of wire of the right * size ; one piece some- 

 what longer than the whole bird, the other pieces two or three 

 times as long as the whole leg of the bird. File one end of 

 each piece to a fine sharp point, try to secure a three-edged 

 cutting point like that of surgical needles, rather than the 

 smooth, punching point of a sewing needle, the former perfo- 

 rates more readily. Have these wires perfectly straight.-}- 

 Bend a small portion of the unfiled end of the longer wire ir- 

 regularly upon itself, as a convenient nucleus for the ball of 

 tow.j Take fine clean tow, in loose dossils, and wrap it round 

 and round the wire nucleus, till you make a firm ball, of the 

 size and shape of the bird's body and neck. Study the con- 

 tour of the skinned body : notice the swelling breast muscles, 

 the arch of the lower back, the hollow between the furcula into 



*The right size is the smallest that will support the whole weight of the stuff- 

 ing and skin without bending, when a piece is introduced into each leg. If using 

 too thick wire you may have trouble in thrusting it through the legs, or may burst 

 the tarsal envelope. 



tlf accidentally kinky, the finer sizes of wire may be readily straightened by 

 drawing strongly upon them so as to stretch them a little. Heavier wire must be 

 hammered out straight. 



t Cotton will not do at all ; it is too soft and elastic, and moreover will not allow 

 of the leg wires being thrust into it and there clinched. 



