468 AMERICAN FISHES. 



The following receipts are also taken from Ronald's works 

 mentioned, and are excellent. 



RECEIPTS. 



To DYE WHITE FEATHERS A DUN COLOR. Make a mordant, by dis- 

 solving a quarter of an ounce of alum in a pint of water, slightly 

 boil the feathers in it, taking care that they be thoroughly soaked 

 with the solution; then boil them in other water with fustic and cop- 

 peras till they assume the proper tint. This for yellow dun sumac 

 and copperas for blue dun tint. The greater quantity of copperas used, 

 the deeper will be the dye. 



To TURN RED HACKLES BROWN. Put a piece of copperas the size 

 of a half-walnut in a pint of water, boil it, and while boiling, put in the 

 red feathers ; let them remain until by frequent examination they are 

 found to have taken the purple color. 



To DYE OLIVE DUN. Make a very strong infusion of the outside 

 brown coatings of onions, by allowing it to stand twelve or twenty-four 

 hours by a warm fire. If dun feathers are boiled in this they become 

 an olive-dun ; if white feathers, they become yellow ; if a piece of 

 copperas be added, the latter color becomes a useful muddy-yellow, 

 lighter or darker, as may be required, and approaching a yellow olive- 

 dun, according to the quantity of copperas used. 



To DYE MALLARD FEATHERS FOR GREEN DRAKE. Tie up the best 

 white and black barred feathers from under the wing, in bunches of a 

 dozen; boil them in the mordant, as directed in No. 1, to get out the 

 grease ; boil them in an infusion of fustic, to procure a yellow, and add 

 copperas to the infusion, to subdue the brightness of the yellow. 



To DYE FEATHERS DARK-RED AND PURPLE. Hackles of various 

 colors boiled (without alum) in an infusion of logwood and Brazil-wood 

 dust, until they are as red as they can be made, may, by putting them 

 into a mixture of muriatic acid and tin, be changed to a deeper red. 

 As the solution is not to be a saturated solution of tin it must be much 

 diluted ; if it burns your tongue much it will burn the feathers a little ; 

 by putting the feathers, after the first process, into a warm solution of 

 potash, they will become purple. 



