326 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



When the head and neck are filled with cotton 

 quite to your liking, close the bill as in nature. 

 A little bit of bees' wax, at the point of it, will 

 keep the mandibles in their proper place. A 

 needle must be stuck into the lower mandible per- 

 pendicularly. You will shortly see the use of it. 

 Bring also the feet together by a pin, and then 

 run a thread through the knees, by which you may 

 draw them to each other, as near as you judge 

 proper. Nothing now remains to be added but the 

 eyes. With your little stick make a hollow in the 

 cotton within the orbit, and introduce the glass 

 eyes through the orbit. Adjust the orbit to them, 

 as in nature, and that requires no other fastener. 



Your close inspection of the eyes of animals 

 will already have informed you, that the orbit is 

 capable of receiving a much larger body than that 

 part of the eye which appears within it when in 

 life. So that, were you to proportion your eye to 

 the size the orbit is capable of receiving, it would 

 be far too large. Inattention to this has caused 

 the eyes of every specimen, in the best cabinets 

 of natural history, to be out of all proportion. 

 To prevent this, contract the orbit, by means of a 

 very small delicate needle and thread, at that 

 part of it farthest from the beak. This may be 

 done with such nicety, that the stitch cannot be 

 observed; and thus you have the artificial eye in 

 true proportion. 



After this, touch the bill, orbits, feet, and 

 foimer oil-gland at the root of the tail, with the 

 solution, and then you have given to the hawk 

 everything necessary, except attitude, and a 



