PRESERVING COLOUR OF LEGS, ETC. 85 
PRESERVING THE COLOUR OF THE LEGS 
AND BILLS OF STUFFED BIRDS. 
I consIDER it impossible to preserve the colours 
unimpaired in the legs of stuffed birds. I have 
seen the lake-coloured leg of the beautiful yawar- 
raciri of Guiana lose every particle of the red; 
and I have found that no external application can 
preserve the fine colours in the legs of the scarlet 
curlew, the trumpeter, the water-hen of Guiana, 
and many other birds too numerous to mention. 
Under the outward scale of the leg, in the living 
bird, are substances from which the leg derives its 
colour. They fade in time after the death of the 
bird, and then the whole complexion of the leg is 
changed. Perhaps you might partially succeed in 
renewing the faded colours of the leg, by means of 
paint mixed up with water: at best it is a bad busi- 
ness. The legs of birds stuffed on the old system 
are so shrunk and hideous to the eye, that, in my 
opinion, their colour is a mere secondary considera- 
tion. In the bills of birds, the colours are either 
produced from internal substances, as in the base 
of the lower mandible of the toucan; or inherent 
in the horn or bone itself, as in the cassique. In 
either case, dissection is absolutely necessary, if 
you wish to have the beauty of the bill retained or 
renewed, 
