ON PRESERVING BIRDS. 345 



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 cabi- 

 nets 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 former 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 proper degree of elasticity, two qualities 

 very essential. 



Procure any common ordinary box, fill one end of it, 

 about three-fourths up to the top, with cotton, forming a 

 sloping plane. Make a moderate hollow in it to receive 

 the bird. Now take the hawk in your hands, and, after 

 putting the wings in order, place it in the cotton, with its 

 legs in a sitting posture. The head will fall down. Never 

 mind. Get a cork, and run three pins into the end, just 

 like a three-legged stool. Place it under the bird's bill, 

 and run the needle, which you formerly fixed there, into 

 the head of the cork. This will support the bird's head 

 admirably. If you wish to lengthen the neck, raise the 



