TAXIDERMY. 507 



in different directions, and the legs, and tail dangle about 

 helplessly. No vestige of an attitude can be seen, and 

 the operator feels very much inclined to give it up in 

 despair. 



Day after day he works at it according to instructions, and 

 seems to make no progress whatever. Presently, however, he 

 is encouraged by finding that the skin begins to respond to 

 his touch, and before very long, it becomes as plastic as clay 

 in the hands of the sculptor. 



jSTow comes the time for the second maxim. The skin, as 

 Dickens's butcher said of his meat, (i must be humoured, not 

 drove," and if any attempt is made at hurrying, it will be 

 totally spoiled. 



Waterton's deliberation while preparing a bird or animal 

 was almost exasperating. He would give it a touch here and 

 a touch there, smooth down a starting feather with the instru- 

 ment which he mostly used, a blow-gun, arrow from which 

 the poison, had been removed ; or, he would slightly alter the 

 pose of the head, or mould afresh a piece of skin which was 

 beginning to shrivel. He thus kept every feather and hair 

 under command, and put in touch after touch to the skin just 

 as a painter does to his canvas. The result was absolute 

 perfection, but the means appeared strangely inadequate. 



jSIo one could prepare a humming-bird like Waterton. 

 Except in his collection, it is next to impossible to find a 

 stuffed humming-bird in which the glittering gorget is not 

 disfigured by little dark spots. Each such spot shows that 

 a feather is missing. 



Now Waterton found that such missing feathers had 

 rarely been pulled out of their sockets and lost, but had 

 been dragged under the other feathers by the contraction 

 of the skin. He always searched for them, found them, 

 drew them from their concealment and laid them in their 

 places. So, the breasts of his humming-birds simply blazed 

 with gold, ruby, azure, or emerald, according to their species, 

 as they did in life. 



