J ig METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 



Another Method of Softening Skins. — Here is a most efficacious 

 method of softening bird skins. It is the device of a French taxi- 

 dermist who lived in the latter part of the last century, and it has been 

 employed more or less ever since, especially by many of the older 

 taxerdermists and ornithologists. 



A box is made of convenient size, the top of which, without hinges 

 and fastenings, is free to be lifted off. The sides, top and bottom within 

 are lined with a coating of plaster of Paris, two or three inches 

 thick. When skins are to be softened, fill tht box with water, and 

 allow it to stand until the water has been absorbed by the plaster. If 

 the plaster does not take up all the water within twelve or fifteen hours, 

 pour off that which remains. Take out the filling in the skins and 

 place them in the box. The lid should be made to fit tightly in a 

 groove cut in the plaster. It is necessary before placing the skins in 

 the box to soften their feet and wing-joints, and some taxidermists give 

 the entire skin the usual wrapping of wet rags before placing them 

 within the box. It is sometimes desirable when working on fresh 

 birds to lay them away in a half finished condition over night or for a 

 day or two. This plaster box will be found a most excellent receptacle 

 for the purpose of keeping the skins in a soft, pliable condition until 

 work can be resumed on them again. 



The general method pursued in mounting dry skins is, of course, 

 the same as that practiced upon fresh specimens. Difficulty is often ex- 

 perienced in the placing of the soft, annealed leg-wires in position from 

 the dry and shriveled condition of the tarsi. This may be overcome 

 by first making a hole with the drill (Fig. 2, Plate II). 



Hot Water Bath for Relaxing. — Mr. William Brewster, the orni- 

 thologist, under the title of " A New Wrinkle in Taxidermy," in 

 Messrs. Southwick & Jencks' Raiidom Notes ojt Natural History^ \o\. 

 II, No. 1, describes his experience with hot water for relaxing: 



"Wishing to turn a mounted bird into a skin, and having but a 

 limited time to devote to the task, I tried an experiment. Taking a 

 funnel and inserting the pointed end in the stuffing between the edges 

 of the skin on the abdomen, I poured in a quantity of hot water 

 (nearly boiling hot), taking care to regulate the injection so that it 

 should be rather slowly absorbed by the stuffing, and holding the bird 

 at various angles, that every portion of the interior might become 

 soaked. The effect was magical ; the skin quickly relaxed, and with- 

 in fifteen minutes I could bend the neck and make other required 

 changes without any risk of a break. 



" My first experiment was with a gull ; afterward I tried other 



