METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY, 9 1 



enough to protrude from the skull. Make it exactly as represented 

 in l-'ig. •>. Now run this wire straight through the ceiiter of this cervi- 

 cal vertebra.^ and leave it project out an inch or two, according to the size 

 of your bird, and stick a small piece of cork on the sharpened end as 

 in Fig. ■">, Plate XXII, to keep your hands from being injured with the 

 sharp point of the wire while you are making the neck. You may now 

 wrap this neck skeleton with fine tow to replace the flesh ; bind it 

 down with thread, and just before inserting it in the neck-skin cover 

 the whole with clay. The clay should have a mixture of stiff glue 

 liquid. The windpipe which moves so easily from one side to the other 

 can be imitated by taking a small piece of annealed wire, winding it 

 with tow and anchoring or sewing it at the u])])cr and lower end of the 

 neck. In making the false body carry out the same instructions to 

 form it as given in mounting of the robin, except, of course, that 

 when you take the size of the body lengthwise with wire you leave off 

 the neck- wire which is used in the short-necked birds. After carefully 

 forming the neck of your heron anchor it firmly in the proper place on 

 the artificial body. You can see how this should be done by examining 

 Fig. 4, Plate XXII. Be very particular in making the false body for 

 your herons as you should in all others, imitating every hollow and 

 elevation. If your heron is to stand on one leg the wire in the leg that 

 is to support the body should be heavier, and if the bird is to be placed 

 in a walking position with one of the large toes just touching the 

 ground, sharpen the wire that is to go in this leg at both ends, and run 

 it in from the inside to very nearly the end of the great toe and let it 

 come out at this point so that there will be no visible supporting wire 

 from the leg when fastened on the stand, as seen in Fig. 5, Plate XV, 

 and Fig. 5, Plate XXII. 



Skinning and Mounting Colossal Birds. — The ostriches, emus, 

 and cassowaries, on account of their immense size, require special 

 treatment in their skinning and mounting. The opening cut must be 

 begun high up on the breast and continued to the vent. Make another 

 incision across the abdominal region from one leg to the other; con- 

 tinue this cut down the inside of the leg and down to the ball of the 

 foot, if it be an ostrich. Through this opening you can remove the 

 tendons and muscles and detach the skin of the leg all the wav around 

 the bone. Sever the legs at the knee-joint and cure the skin with 

 arsenical paste or arsenical soap and a little powdered alum and salt. 

 Skin over the tail and down the back till the wings are reached, de- 

 tach the humerus from the body and strip it of its flesh, leaving the 

 other portion of the wing to be skinned from the outside as seen in 



