844 How to Mount a Bird. 



is sufficiently long, it will project beyond the tow neck from one to 

 three inches, according to the size of the bird. Insert this in the neck 

 of the skin, and carefully work the body up into the skin and the skin 

 down over the body, bringing the wire out through the crown of the 

 head, or a little in front of it. Be careful when you do this that the 

 skin on top of the head is not drawn backward ; for if this happens, the 

 wire will hold it there and an unnatural look be the result. You will 

 find a perverse tendency of the wire, especially in long-necked birds, to 

 come out through the side of the neck. Work the neck up into the 

 skin until it meets the base of the skull, adjust the feathers a little, 

 and proceed with the legs. Insert the wire in the sole of the foot, 

 and with a twisting motion force it slowly up the back of the leg, 

 past the heel, — too often called knee, — until the point has entered 

 what was the fleshy part of the leg. Then turn the leg inside out so 

 that the wire may not catch the skin, and pull it through with a pair 

 of pliers. The chances are ten to one that, for the first few times, the 

 leg wire will insist on catching in the heel-joint or coming through 

 the skin just above it; but we will suppose that the leg has been safely 

 wired and that the wire projects for a short distance above the bone. 

 The muscles of the leg are to be replaced by fine tow — cotton will do 

 for small birds, but not at all for large ones — wound on smoothly 

 until the leg nicely fits the skin. 



Observe that a bird's leg has a most graceful taper, like that of 

 an Indian club, and that it does not start abruptly from the bone. In 

 turning back the skin, be sure that you do not get a twist in the leg, 

 a very common and vexatious occurrence. If a bird is to be made 

 walking, one leg must be wired from above downward, the wire 

 being made to follow along the middle toe and brought out at the 

 first joint. Many taxidermists do not deem it worth while to wrap 

 the legs of small birds, but I do it to the very smallest ; if it does 

 nothing more, it at least prevents the wire from coming in contact 

 with the skin and possibly rusting through. Having made the legs, 

 the next step is to secure them to the body, and this is done by 

 thrusting the wires through it, bending them back, and finally clinching 

 the points on the sides from which they started. Three points should 

 be specially looked after : first, that the legs are solidly attached ; sec- 

 ond, that they are not too high up, — i. e., too near the back, — and, 

 third, that they are well forward. Most amateurs, and not a few pro- 



