ON STUFFING BIRDS. l-l 



place. A needle must be stuck into the lower mandible per- 

 pendicularly, you will shortly see the use of it. Bring also 

 the feet together by a pin, and then run a thread through the 

 knees, by which you may draw them to each other as near as 

 you judge proper. Nothing now remains but to add the eyes, 

 with your little stick make a hollow in the cotton within the 

 orbit and introduce the glass eyes into it. Adjust the orbit to 

 them as in nature, and that requires no other fastner." 



Great attention must be paid to the size of the orbit, which 

 will receive within it an object much larger than the eye, so 

 that it must be drawn together with a very small delicate 

 needle and thread, at the part farthest from the beak. 



A small quantity of the solution is now applied to the bill, 

 orbits, and feet. 



Take any ordinary box large enough for holding the bird, 

 and fill three-fourths of it from the top at one end, and the 

 other end forming an inclined plane ; make a hollow in it 

 sufficient for the reception of the bird, place it in the box with 

 its legs in a sitting posture ; take a piece of cork into which 

 three pins have been stuck for legs, like a three-footed stool ; 

 place it under the bill of the bird, and the needle which was 

 formerly run through the bill is stuck into the cork, which 

 will act as a support to the bird's head. If the neck is wished 

 to be lengthened, put more cotton under the cork, or vice ver- 

 sa; and if the head is wished to be projecting forward, it has 

 only to be brought nearer the front of the box, humouring the 

 cork, so as to place it in the position you require. 



As the back part of the neck shrinks more in drying than 

 the fore part, a thread must be tyed to the end of the box, and 

 fastened to the beak, to prevent the face from looking too 

 much upwards. If the wings are wished elevated, support 

 them with cotton ; and if to be very high, place a piece of 

 stick under them. 



Should you desire to expand the wings, the order of the 

 feathers must be reversed, commencing with the two middle 

 ones. When perfectly dry, place them in the natural order, 

 and they will ever afterwards continue as you wish them. If 

 the crest is wished to be erect, the feathers must be moved in 

 a contrary direction for a day or two, when they will soon take 

 the position wished for, 



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